" Riverside Literature Series ' 




Representative 

Endii^h and iScottish 

Popular Ballads 



jc: 



Houghton Mifflin Co. 




Class _^V"^J_LSJ. 

Book i-jy'S 

CopightN? 



COPYRIGHT deposit: 



®l)e MifaersiDe JLtttrature ^ttits 



ENGLISH AND SCOTTISH 
POPULAR BALLADS 



SELECTED AND EDITED FOR STUDY UNDER 
THE SUPERVISION OF 

WILLIAM ALLAN NEILSON 

Professor of English, Harvard University 

BY 

K. ADELAIDE WITHAM 




HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 

Boston : 4 Park Street ; New York : 85 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago : 378-388 Wabash Avenue 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 
Two CoDies Received 

MAR 11 1^09 

Copyrignt Entry 

CLASS <X. XXc. No, 

COPY 3. 



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v^ 



COPYRIGHT, 1909, BY HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 



V:- PREFACE 

The present volume is designed to meet the needs 
of a less advanced class of students than is provided 
for in the comprehensive collections of the late Pro- 
fessor Child or in the edition by Kittredge and Sargent 
in the Cambridge Poets series. Those great sources of 
material and illustration have been drawn upon, as 
was inevitable, with great freedom ; and this selection 
is to be regarded as an introduction which, it is hoped, 
may allure students to a more exhaustive study of 
the subject. With this end in view, the attempt has 
been made to lay solid foundations for the understand- 
ing and appreciation of ballad poetry by making the 
selection representative, by refraining from any tam- 
pering with the texts, either in spelling or in readings, 
and by supplying abundant references to works in 
which the study of ballads may be further pursued. 

Miss Witham's Introduction seeks to give in concise 
form the gist of the most recent scholarship concerning 
the characteristics and the origin of ballads. Here she 
is naturally chiefly indebted to Professor Gummere, 
especially in his book on the Popular Ballad, and to 
Professor Kittredge in the introduction to his volume 
in the Cambridge Poets series. The notes show simi- 
larly a free use of the introductions by Professoi 
Child in his great final collection ; and by specific re- 
ferences the reader is constantly reminded of the mass 
of variants to be found there, a knowledge of which 
is so essential to a right conception of ballad poetry. 



iv PREFACE 

It is not to be supposed, however, that basing the 
book upon these fundamental authorities makes it any 
less serviceable to the reader who wishes merely to en- 
joy. The preservation of the spelling of the texts as 
Professor Child prints them offers but a slight obstacle 
to easy intelligibility, and soon comes to be to any lover 
of ballads almost an essential feature. Modernization 
is, moreover, impossible without some degree of falsifi- 
cation, and no method at once consistent and innocuous 
has yet been discovered. 

The writing of the Introduction and the compiling 
of the Notes and Glossary are the work of Miss Witham, 
the share of the supervising editor having been confined 
to criticism and advice. Obligations to the works of 
Professors Child, Gummere, and Kittredge have been 
specifically recognized wherever possible, and a gen- 
eral acknowledgment is here gratefully rendered. 

W. A. Neilson. 

CAMBBmoB, Mass., Jannary 5, 1909. 



CONTENTS 



Introduction ^" 



Origin and Development of Ballads 



vm 



Ballad Structure ^"^ 

Subject-Matter of Ballads ^^"* 

Characteristics of Ballads ^™^ 

The Versification of Ballads ^^^"* 

Later History of Ballads ^^^^^ 

Date of Ballads 

The Douglas Tragedy • 

4 

The Twa Sisters 

7 
The Cruel Brother 

9 
Edward 

Babylon ; or, The Bonnie Banks o Fordie . . H 

Hind Horn 

Lord Thomas and Fair Annet 15 

Love Gregor 

Bonny "Barbara Allen 

. 25 
Lamkin 

29 
Young Waters 

The Gay Goss-Hawk 

The Three Ravens 

37 
The Twa Corbies 



vi CONTENTS 

Sir Patrick Spence 38 

Thomas Rymer and the Queen of Elfland ... 40 

The Wee Wee Man 42 

Sweet William's Ghost 43 

The Wife of Usher's Well 46 

Kemp Owyne 48 

The D-emon Lover 50 

Hugh of Lincoln 52 

Young Bicham 55 

Get Up and Bar the Door 58 

The Battle of Otterburn 60 

Chevy Chase 66 

Johnie Armstrong 75 

Captain Car 78 

The Bonny Earl of Murray 82 

KiNMONT Willie 83 

Bonnie George Campbell 90 

The Dowy Houms o Yarrow 91 

Johnie Cock 93 

Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne 97 

Robin Hood's Death and Burla.l 105 

Robin Hood Rescuing the Widow's Three Sons . . 108 

Notes 114 

Glossary 181 



INTRODUCTION 

Over a century ago, in Scotland — the land where 
" every field has its battle and every rivulet its song " 
— lived a boy who loved nothing so much as to listen 
to tales of olden times. Especially he loved thoge told 
him in verse. What he heard he remembered ; retold 
to his playmates when they would listen ; or, lacking 
that audience, would shout out to the empty air for 
the sheer joy of their sound. His enthusiasm was 
no respecter of persons ; bursting into his mother's 
parlor one day, roaring forth the lines of the ballad 
Hardyknute^ he put to rout the parish clergyman, 
who ended his call abruptly, exclaiming, " One may 
as well speak in the mouth of a cannon as where that 
child is ! " A year or so later the same boy came upon a 
copy of VQvcy^ Meliques of Ancient English Poetry. 
All day he pored over the precious ballads, under the 
shade of a huge plane tree, forgetful even of dinner 
until he was sent for. In young manhood " that 
child " was binding together for himself six volumes 
of ballads and folk-songs of his own collecting. 
Over moss and moor, into " shepherd's hut or minis- 
ter's manse," he had ridden on his quest — an inde- 
fatigable ballad-hunter. No distance was too great, no 
path too rough, that would lead him to those who 
possessed a ballad he had never heard. And in old 
age, death staring him in the face, he steadied himself 
by repeating from the noble Otterhurn : — 

My wound is deep, I fain wad sleep, 
Nae mair I '11 fighting see ; 



viii INTRODUCTION 

Gae lay me in the bracken bush 
That grows on yonder lee. 

All these ballads which Scott so loved, and which 
he had gathered together with the aid of friends as 
enthusiastic as himself — Leyden/ Shortreed, Heber, 
■ — he shared with the world in the Border Mlnstrehy, 
Among the congratulations that poured in upon him 
as soon as it was published there was one dissenting 
voice. An honest old woman of the North Countrie,^ 
who had sung many of the songs for Scott for the first 
time, moaned, " They were made for singing, and no 
for reading ; but ye ha'e broken the charm now, an' 
they '11 never be sung mair." To find just why she 
believed so despairingly that to print them was to kill 
them we must go to the ballads themselves. 

Origin and Development of Ballads 

Let us read aloud — since we have fallen upon the 
evil days that know them not by heart — any three or 

1 "In this labor," says Scott, "he [Leyden] was equally interested 
by friendship for the editor, and by his own patriotic zeal for the honor 
of the Scottish borders ; and both may be judged from the following 
circumstance. An interesting fragment had been obtained of an 
ancient historical ballad ; but the remainder, to the great disturb- 
ance of the editor and his coadjutor, was not to be recovered. Two 
days afterwards, while the editor was sitting with some company 
after dinner, a sound was heard at a distance like that of the whis- 
tling of a tempest through the torn rigging of the vessel which scuds 
before it. The sounds increased as they approached more near ; and 
Leyden (to the great astonishment of such of the guests as did not 
know him) burst into the room, chanting the desiderated ballad with 
the most enthusiastic gestures, and all the energy of what he used 
to call the saw tones of his voice. It turned out that he had walked 
between forty and fifty miles and back again, for tlie sole purpose 
of visiting an old person who possessed this precious remnant of an- 
tiquity." Lockhart's Scott, i, 303. 

2 The mother of James Hogg, the " Ettrick Shepherd." 



INTRODUCTION ix 

four, say Sir Patrick Spence, Kemp Oivyne, The Twa 
Sisters, The Bonny Earl of Murray, At once the 
rise and fall of tlie easy iambic metre starts in our 
ears. " Come to Craigy's sea and kiss with me " and 
" Binnorie, O Binnorie," echo like musical refrains. 
And there 's a haunting tune in 

He was a braw gallant, 

And he rid at the ring ; 
And the bonny Earl of Murray, 

Oh he might have been a king ! 

He was a braw gallant, 

And he played at the ba' ; 
And the bonny Earl of Murray 

Was the flower amang them a*. 

The blunt critic was right, then, — the ballads were 
indeed made for singing. Were they as truly '' no for 
reading " ? They are surely different from other read- 
ing. Close the book, and their words, all plain and 
unassuming as they are, abide with us ; so do their 
homely epithets, — " milk-white hand," " cherry cheeks"; 
their inevitable rhymes, —wine . . . mine, me ... sea ; 
their simple iterations, — " late, late yestreen," '^ O 
lang, lang may their ladies sit " ; and their oft-repeated 
lines. Not so cling the verses of the conscious poets, — 
Shakespeare, or Wordsworth, or Browning. They are 
to be read and re-read from the printed page, and 
could never have trusted for life to our memories. 
And this was exactly the old woman's distinction. Not 
having been committed, for generations, to type, — 
as if told once for all and done with, — ballads were 
free to change, to alter a phrase, add a new episode, 
vary a refrain, or adapt themselves to new localities 
and events. In short, ballads lived a genuine life, sus- 



X INTRODUCTION 

ceptible to growth and development, like any other 
organism. From this point of view, to print them 
was sure death ; but, fortunately for us, a death that 
meant immortality. We may be forgiven, however, 
for wishing an impossible thing — that our collec- 
tions of ballads to-day could, like the books of merry 
Lincoln, open themselves and be " read without man's 
tongTie," that so we might catch a nearer glimpse of 
what they meant to those who heard them chanted in 
old ballad days, and have a clearer comprehension of 
the grief of Sir Walter's friend. 

"Made for singing, and no for reading," brings us 
directly to the vexed question of ballad origins. It is 
reasonable to believe that what clings to our memo- 
ries without great conscious effort may, perhaps 
must, have had its being in the memories, rather than 
in the conscious efforts of those, whoever they may 
be, to whom we owe these unsigned poems ; and that 
what sings itself in our ears must have had its birth 
in song. We may venture, then, a proposition to be 
proved as we go on, — that a ballad is a tale tell big 
itself in song.^ A tale, meaning that in all ballads 
the narrative element persists from beginning to end ; 
telling itself, in the sense that there is no revelation 
of an individual author in the lines ; iti song, in that 
the singing quality of the verse impresses us at once 
as its life and soul. The first and third terms of our 
proposition are self-evident from the reading of even 
four ballads ; it is the second term that demands dis- 
cussion. 

A tale telling itself is too shadowy a conception to 

^ See Kittredge, Introduction to English and Scottish Popular Bal- 
lads, Cambridge Ed., p. xi. 



INTRODUCTION xi 

be altogether comfortable ; it needs defining. That bal- 
lads are anonymous is indisputable, and equally clear 
is it that they do not belong to that class of anony- 
mous poetry from which the author's name has merely 
been accidentally lost, or wilfully withheld. There is 
no chance of tracing them by the internal evidences 
of style to any individual author. Ballads do not 
sound like Burns, or Byron, or Rossetti, — they sound 
simply like ballads. He who sang the ballad was for 
the moment as much its author as any one ever can be 
— but author in an unusual sense, having no mind to 
express himself, playing no part in his poem, exhibit- 
ing as a rule no feeling at the events recounted. So 
sweepingly is this true that one or two appearances in 
ballads of the personal pronoun " I," representing the 
singer, are a marked departure from the rule. 

But to deny ballads authorship is not to deny them 
origin. All the ballads in this small volume are popu- 
lar in origin. That is, they had their rise among the 
common people, were a feature of primitive community 
life, and sung both in the household and in the village 
gathering. Their beginnings carry us back to an age 
whose poet could not write, but must sing or recite to 
an audience that could not read. The society of those 
days was homogeneous, having all interests in common, 
knowing no intellectual divisions, enjoying — king and 
peasant — much the same diversions, and, above all 
else, delighting in that singing and dancing with which 
a whole community celebrated occurrences that touched 
them all. It is but a commonplace of history that such 
celebrations actually existed among primitive folk; and 
even to-day in Africa, South America, and Australia 
may be found such dancing, singing throngs. It is 



xii INTRODUCTION 

hard, at first thought, to believe that in these savage 
festivals poetry had its beginnings. But let us imagine 
a situation that is typical of several ballads, — the mur- 
der of wife and children while the lord of the castle is 
away from home. Suppose messengers coming into the 
midst of a community to tell of the tragedy, and the 
people gathering around them. The listening throng 
greet their words with the motions and inarticulate ex- 
clamations of strong excitement, and these gradually, 
like the cheering and swaying of any mob, become 
rhythmical. The speakers, too, fall into the swing, 
partly because the influence of the gesticulating crowd 
is upon them, and partly because their own intense 
feeling tends to voice itself in rhythm. They narrate 
one incident after another until the tale is told with 
some completeness. And in their pauses, for breath 
or for recollecting, the undertone of the crowd, which 
has been like a burden to their song, rises into a 
chorus or refrain. The singers use the simple tradi- 
tional phrases of the people naturally, so their tale is 
easily remembered. Again and again will they be 
called upon to tell it, and again and again will the 
people, for they cannot help learning it, sing it for 
themselves. Modifications and additions will be made 
as time goes on, — perhaps a bit of the family history 
of the principal actors now become significant, or an 
incident of the tragedy itself discovered later, and 
supplied by some one in the throng. The tale is never 
done so long as the folk sing it; it is ever in the 
making and the makers are the people. The next step 
in development would be that he who was most skiKul 
in fashioning or adding to the song — one of the first 
messengers possibly, but some one else in the throng 



INTRODUCTION xiii 

just as likely — would receive the special approval of 
the listening people. As they realized his genius they 
would doubtless hang on his narrative in silence, and 
join in only on the refrain. His version then would be 
the one most generally remembered. And yet he would 
never think of claiming it as his own individual ^^ro- 
duction; he and the people both are its authors,^ uncon- 
scious authors, and the career of the song instead of 
being finished is just beginning. At a later period we 
should find the people giving more and more promi- 
nence to the single singer. Then would come the temp- 
tation to the minstrel, thus admired and courted, to 
make his singing a profession, to draw not only upon 
traditional stuff, but to improvise for himself, using old 
phrases and idioms, but juggling and inventing incidents 
at will. And this step brings us to a class of ready-made 
ballads, of which we shall need to speak again, but 
which are quite different from the traditional material 
with which we are now concerned. The significant point 
throughout the whole process — and it is not a fanci- 
ful one — is that the people and the minstrel together 
stand for our modern author, and oral tradition for 
our printed book. 

This is the only kind of authorship which can be 
recognized for the popular ballad.^ It is a composite 
of two parts, mutually dependent : first, an initial act 
of composition at a given time by one person ; second, 
a subsequent process of collective authorship. The pro- 

1 See Kittredg-e, Introduction to English and Scottish Popular Bal- 
lads, Cambridge Ed., p. xxv, for a concrete example of the way in 
which minstrel and people worked together. 

2 A reasonable working out of this theory in detail was first accom- 
plished by Professor Gummere. See The Beginnings of Poetry (Mac- 
millan) and The Popular Ballad (Houghton Mifflin Company). 



xiv INTRODUCTION 

portion contributed by eacb may vary with every bal- 
lad. The peculiar position of the one^ however, must be 
clearly understood, neither over- nor under-estimated. 
His theme is not a private one but belongs to t\\efolh; 
he uses not his own carefuUy sought expressions, but 
the familiar phraseology of the folk; and the listening 
presence of the folk is the force that moulds the 
manner, and sometimes, although to a less degree, the 
matter, of his song. It is a far cry from him to Shel- 
ley's poet, 

hidden 

In the light of thought, 

Singing hymns unbidden, 

that are a part of his own being but may or may not 
find other listeners. 

This theory of composite authorship seems as near 
as we can ever come reasonably to the conception of a 
tale telling itself Recognizing, as it does, both the 
minstrel and the people, it saves us from the haziness 
of Grimm's theory which, in its insistence upon the 
folk as author^ brings us to the amusing spectacle 
of all the folk of a community suddenly pouring 
forth upon occasion unpremeditated concerted song. 
Given a singing, dancing people celebrating an event 
of common interest, Grimm says, different members, 
one after another, would make up a stanza ; and the 
sum of these stanzas would be the song, so held in rev- 
erence that no individual reciter would ever dare to 
alter it. But this supposes all the members of a com- 
munity equally gifted in composition, and does not 
take into sufficient account the irrepressible one^ more 
skilful than all the others. It fails where most social- 
istic theories fail — in being unable to suppress the 
inevitable rise of the individual. 



INTRODUCTION xv 

Another interesting theory grants more to the indi- 
vidual. It holds that Grimm's folk did not always 
dance and ejaculate in rhythm nor demand that all 
tales should be told them in rhythm. They loved just 
as well to talk over their exploits, past and present, in 
prose, giving full circumstance, explanation, and con- 
nection ; and then called at certain points for some 
good singer among them to chant the episode. Natu- 
rally the song would be remembered long after the sur- 
rounding prose had been lost, and would continue to 
be remembered for generations. This theory would 
account for the abrupt beginnings, the lack of connec- 
tions, the unexplained situations, — all the uncertain- 
ties in the ballads that give rise to the questions who ? 
when? where? why? that never can be really an- 
swered. But it minimizes the part of the people in the 
first making of the song, and neglects the part of the 
singing and dancing throng.^ 

1 It is easy to lay down laws as to the ways of primeval folk, for, 
since they are not here to contradict us, our theories once based upon 
a historical fact may wax unchecked. But an incident observed this 
summer (11)07) served to force home the possibility of this double 
ballad authorship. A group of Italian women working in a field 
near my home sang every morning what had, to my ears, that could 
distinguish not the matter but the manner only, — the rythmic swing, 
the stanza, the refrain, all the marks of a popular song. One among 
them sang the stanzas, and all joined in a vociferous chorus. At my 
first hearing a certain number of stanzas were sung through in this 
way, and then the song came to a full stop. So far I thought of it 
only as a song. But, after a pause, I heard the voice of the leader 
ringing out again, and saw her gesticulating as she sang. The others 
stopped their work to listen and look, hanging on every syllable, 
laughing louder and louder as she reached the end of her stanza. 
Then came a " doubly re-doubled " refrain — spontaneous applause, 
without any doubt, for a spontaneously composed stanza. I could not 
be sure on subsequent days that this identical stanza took up its place 
for good and all in the song, but I saw a similar process of improvisa- 
tion of new stanzas many times, and I judged that the special minstrel 



xvi INTRODUCTION 

Tending still more to individualistic origins is a 
third theory that considers everything about the bal- 
lad — matter and manner — the work of some partic- 
ular minstrel ; and looks upon the people as listening 
only at first and later repeating what the minstrel 
sings. It would consider ballads popular as " popular 
songs " are popular to-day, — the people like them, 
learn them, and sing them freely. It would grant 
that in the course of time the people would make 
changes ; repetitions and stock phrases would creep 
in, and direct modification might occur. This conces- 
sion might seem to bring this theory into line with 
that of communal authorship ; but the difference be- 
tween the two lies in the emphasis placed upon the 
agency of the people. The theory which makes the in- 
dividual the author makes the contribution of the 
people a mere accident of little import ; whereas the 
theory of communal authorship makes it the one abso- 
lute essential without which a ballad could not be a 
ballad. In other words, the former looks upon a bal- 
lad as a single act of creation ; the latter believes it 
to be the end of a long process, and that process the 
only reasonable explanation of the peculiar structure, 
the unvarying anonymity and the striking imperson- 
ality of the ballads, and above all, of the fact that 
baUad making is to-day a lost art. 

Ballad Structure 
We have already noted that ballads reveal a likeness 
to one another, and a difference from all other poetry. 

among them was almost daily " on with a new one," she thus taking 
the lead, the others instigating and adopting — the dual process going 
on in the twentieth century before our very eyes ! 



INTRODUCTION xvii 

But we have not yet determined exactly a distinguish- 
ing trait, the possession of which makes a ballad and the 
want of which sends a narrative poem seeking for some 
other classification. To do this we must try various 
tests. First, is this specific mark the traditional qual- 
ity? The answer must be no; because, although all 
ballads are traditional, all traditional poetry is not 
ballads; it may be folk-song, choral of labor, funeral 
dirge, — various kinds of verse of popular origin. Is 
the test the narrative quality ? Obviously, no. When 
we consider all the types of poetry which may be 
classed as narrative, when we see (as we shall later) 
that ballads are not narrative at its best, when we 
study out one of Professor Child's introductions to 
any ballad, — say that to The Douglas Tragedy^ 
stating all the forms, both prose and verse, in which 
this tale has appeared in European literatures, — we 
are convinced that the story is not the thing. Shall we 
try, then, to make a test out of the indefinable charm 
we felt when we read our first ballads, a charm that 
made us more conscious of the way the story was told 
than of the story itself ? That is, shall we make a me- 
chanical examination of diction, figures, metre, or, 
more vaguel}^ still, tabulate shades of simplicity and 
degrees of crudeness and set these up as a norm for 
ballads? We might unearth in this process a thou- 
sand interesting and illuminating facts, but all of 
them marshalled before us would not be exacting or 
exclusive enough to serve our purpose. Is it not more 
reasonable, since we have found ballad origins and 
development peculiar and individual, to look for a 
distinctive, unvarying mark necessitated by this origin 
and growth — the trail of the making over them aU ? 



xviii INTRODUCTION 

Granted that the ballad was born of the throng 
and could not have been a ballad without the throng, 
the supreme test must be the evidence of the throng. 
This means, first of all, the refrain, an organic struc- 
tural part of all ballads, and no accidental after- 
thought. Many old ballads in this volume have no 
refrains, it is true ; but it is equally true that once 
they did have them.^ Ballad structure, as we have 
seen, went through its own process of evolution. As 
choral verse declined and the single singer came more 
and more to the front, the choral element, the refrain, 
played a smaller and smaller part. It might or it 
might not be sung, as is implied in our modern texts 
by printing it after the first verse only. Later still, 
when oral tradition yielded to written records, the 
narrative survived, and the refrain, as retarding the 
story, little by little disappeared. Scott had many 
a hard hunt after a missing refrain, when all the 
stanzas of a ballad were safe in his hands. Where 
the formal refrain has entirely vanished, however, we 
may catch glimpses of it still. In Kemp Owyne the 
whole story seems a sort of progressive refrain ; and 
in the stiU later Bonny Earl of Murray the choral 
element is so strong that we can easily believe a for- 
mal refrain, beginning, perhaj)s, '•'- O he was a braw 
gallant," gradually absorbed into the narrative and 
being strong enough eventually to dominate it entirely. 
In many ballads it takes, of course, expert examina- 
tion to discover the traces ; but the evidence is always 
there. 

The refrain is a good test, then ; but there is still a 

^ Of the 305 ballads in Professor Child's collection, 106 show clear 
evidence of the refrain. 



INTRODUCTION xix 

better. To discover this by simple induction, let us 
examine the following ballad/ 

THE MAID FREED FROM THE GALLOWS 

" O good Lord Judge, and sweet Lord Judge, 
Peace for a little while ! 
Methinks I see my own father, 
Come riding by the stile. 

" Oh father, oh father, a little of your gold, 
And likewise of your fee ! 
To keep my body from yonder grave, 
And my neck from the gallows-tree." 

" None of my gold now you shall have. 
Nor likewise of my fee ; 
For I am come to see you hangd. 
And hanged you shall be." 

** Oh good Lord Judge, and sweet Lord Judge, 
Peace for a little while ! 
Methinks I see my own mother, 
Come riding by the stile. 

" Oh mother, oh mother, a little of your gold, 
And likewise of your fee, 
To keep my body from yonder grave, 
And ray neck from the gallows-tree ! " 

" None of my gold now shall you have. 
Nor likewise of my fee ; 
For I am come to see you hangd, 
And hanged you shall be." 

" Oh good Lord Judge, and sweet Lord Judge, 
Peace for a little while ! 
Methinks I see my own brother, 
Come riding by the stile. 
1 Professor Kittredge, Introduction to English and Scottish Popu- 
lar Ballads, Cambridge Ed., p. xxv, uses another version of this 
ballad to show the folk as author. 



XX INTRODUCTION 

" Oh brother, oh brother, a little of your gold. 
And likewise of your fee. 
To keep my body from yonder grave. 
And my neck from the gallows-tree ! " 

" None of my gold now shall you have, 
Nor likewise of my fee ; 
For I am come to see you hangd, 
And hanged you shall be." 

" Oh good Lord Judge, and sweet Lord Judge, 
Peace for a little while ! 
Methinks I see my own sister, 
Come riding by the stile. 

" Oh sister, oh sister, a little of your gold, 
And likewise of your fee. 
To keep my body from yonder grave. 
And my neck from the gallows-tree ! " 

" None of my gold now shall you have. 
Nor likewise of my fee ; 
For I am come to see you hangd, 
And hanged you shall be." 

" Oh good Lord Judge, and sweet Lord Judge, 
Peace for a little while ! 
Methinks I see my own true-love, 
Come riding by the stile. 

" Oh true-love, oh true-love, a little of your gold. 
And likewise of your fee. 
To save my body from yonder grave, 
And my neck from the gallows-tree." 

" Some of my gold now you shall have, 
And likewise of my fee, 
For I am come to see you saved. 
And saved you shall be." 

The ballad divides itseK distinctly into five parts of 
three stanzas each. The first stanza in each part is 



INTRODUCTION xxi 

the maiden's request from the judge ; the second, her 
direct plea to one of her family ; the third, this rela- 
tive's answer. Moreover, all the stanzas are worded 
alike, excepting the variation of '^father," "mother," 
"brother," "sister," "true-love," — a verbatim repe- 
tition that is almost unbelievable. And yet, with it all, 
the story moves along toward a definite end. But the 
motion is curious. The action almost " runs down " at 
the end of each part, then, just as it is to stop alto- 
gether, the new word — "mother," " sister " — winds 
it up again. If once we get this motion into ourselves, 
— as we get the motion of swimming or skating or 
riding, — we carry about with us the best of ballad 
tests. This unusual form of progression is known as 
incremental repetition — a constant repeating with a 
constant addition, a " lingering and leaping," to use 
Professor Gummere's phrase, and yet a steady advance 
to the end of the story. The beauty of it is that it 
gives added effect to the climax in genuine unexpect- 
edness ; just as we are sure no one will ransom the 
maiden, comes her true-love. In The Maid Freed from 
the Gallows we have the more primitive form of incre- 
mental repetition, and we cannot expect all ballads 
to adhere so closely to the bare type. The development 
was, as we must always remember, away from the 
choral toward the pure narrative. So we find often a 
sort of epic introduction to the ballad, as in the first 
two stanzas of Babylon ; then, in that case, pure in- 
cremental repetition for eleven stanzas, and finally an 
epic conclusion in the last five stanzas. In general, the 
more mature, at any given time, the stage of poetry, 
the more facts we find and the less repetition. But 
incremental repetition — the " protoplasm of choral 



xxii INTRODUCTION 

poetry " ^ — yielded place much less quickly than the 
refrain. Often a straightforward narrative of the later 
fashion admitted a bit of it, as in the ninth, tenth, 
fourteenth, fifteenth stanzas of The C'iniel Brother^ or 
the second and third of The Wife of Usher's Well. It 
shrank often to the narrow limits of lines instead of 
stanzas, as in Sir Hugh : — 

And first came out the thick, thick blood, 

And syne came out the thin, 
And syne came out the bonny heart's blood ; 

There was nae mair within. 

In this shrunken form we find it in many ballads ; and 
increments consisting of the same words and phrases 
are repeated so often in different ballads that they are 
known as commonplaces.^ For example, these lines in 
Sir Patrick Spence in which he reads the letter : - — 

The first line that Sir Patrick read, 

A loud lauch lauched he ; 
The next line that Sir Patrick read, 

The teir blinded his ee — 

occur with very slight variations in five other ballads, 
Johnie Scot^ Lord Dericentwater^ The Rantin Laddie., 
Lord William, The Gay Goss-Hawk.^ Ballads loved 
the motion, whether on a large or a small scale. They 
would even change the details of a story to admit the 
increment. In the popular tale from which Kemp 
Owyne was taken, there is only one kiss ; the ballad 
promptly made three to admit the incremental repeti- 

^ See Professor Gummere, The Popular Ballad, p. 84. 

2 A list of all kinds of ballad commonplaces may be found in Child, 
V, 474, and the student will be interested to note how many of them 
run into the form of incremental repetition. 

^ The Gay Goss-Hawk is in this volume, p. 32 : for the others, see 
Child, IV, 486, in, 352, 413. 



INTRODUCTION xxiii 

tion of gifts, — the belt, the ring, and the wand.^ In 
the course of time, " unable to keep its larger vitality, 
incremental repetition still refused to disappear from 
the ballad ; one may think of that pretty myth of 
the dew, burned away from field and lawn, but still 
glistening in the copses." ^ And since it always glistens, 
even to the eye that is not expert, it forms for us the 
final, dependable ballad test. 

Subject-Matter of Ballads 

While the subject-matter of the ballads plays but a 
small part in attempts at definition and identification, 
it has significance as a basis of recognition, and it 
holds a good share of the charm of balladry for us. 
Ballads, according to the material they use, fall easily 
into a few definite hut not mutnally exclusive classes. 
Professor Child opened his collection with riddle bal- 
lads, of which Riddles Wisely Ex/pounded ^ is an in- 
teresting example. These he follows with the large 
group concerned with domestic tragedies — the stock 
theme of the greater part of English and Scottish bal- 
lads. It runs the whole gamut of possible situations, 
. — the stolen bride, willing or unwilling, with every 
device for elopement ; the exiled husband ; the deserted 
wife ; quarrelling brothers ; the scheming mother, cruel 
stepmother, and jealous mother-in-law ; the faithless 
servant; — any and every complication that could 
produce tragic results. A third group are the coro- 

1 An excellent example of incremental repetition as a favorite form 
in the telling of children's stories to-day may be found in a southern 
nonsense tale, Epaminondas and his Auntie, reproduced in Stories to 
Tell to Children by Sara Cone Bryant. * 

2 Professor Gummere, The Popular Ballad, p. 133. 

3 See Child, I, 45. 



xxiv INTRODUCTION 

nachs, songs of the mourners of the dead, like The 
Three Ravens, Sir Patrick Spence ; and their reverse, 
the good-nights, — alike in spirit but opposite in mat- 
ter — in which not the mourners but the dying man 
himself — a Johnie Armstrono^ or Youngf Waters — 
speaks the farewell. " Unfortunately," writes Professor 
Gummere,^ " there is no ballad of the parting soul, 
only that very effective Lyhe- Wake Dirge . . . not a 
ballad at all," which was repeated, or sung, at country 
funerals in the seventeenth century. Strictly speak- 
ing, it is a lyric, a folk-song, and not to be included 
in a book of ballads ; but the temptation to print it 
here is strong, for three reasons : — for its intrinsic 
beauty ; because it matches, with a wonderful delicacy, 
the baUad pattern of repetition ; and because, in its 
absence of narrative, it sliows how the line is drawn 
between ballads proper and folk-songs purely lyrical. 

A LYKE-WAKE DIRGE 

This ae night, this ae night, 

Every night and alle; 
Fire and sleet, and candle light, 

And Christ receive thy saule. 

When thou from hence away art passed, 

Every night and alle ; 
To Whinny-muir thou comest at last ; 

And Christ receive thy saule. 

If ever thou gavest bosen and shoon, 

Every night and alle ; 
Sit thee down and put them on; 

And C Wrist receive thy saule. 

1 The Popular Ballad, p. 207. 



INTRODUCTION xxv 

If hosen and shooii thou ne'er gavest nane, 

Every night and alle ; 
The whinnes shall prick thee to the bare bane; 

And Christ receive thy saule. 

From Whinny-muir when thou mayst pass, 

Every night and alle ; 
To Brig o' Dread thou comest at last; 

And Christ receive thy saule. 

From Brig o' Dread when thou mayst pass, 

Every night and alle; 
To Purgatory fire thou comest at last; 

And Christ receive thy saule. 

If ever thou gavest meat or drink, 

Every night and alle ; 
The fire shall never make thee shrink; 

And Christ receive thy saule. 

If meat or drink thou never gavest nane, 

Every night and alle; 
The fire will burn thee to the bare bane; 

And Christ receive thy saule. 

This ae night, this ae night, 

Every night and alle; 
Fire and sleet, and candle light, 

And Christ receive thy saule. 

The approach to the other world in these coronachs is 
also the approach to the supernatural. One class of 
ballads deals with the stuff of superstition, — fairy 
lovers, like the Elf Queen in Thomas Rymer ; magic 
transformations, like those in Kemp Owyne ; the re- 
turn of the dead, as in Sweet William'' s Ghost. Still 
another class is based upon sacred tradition, a small 
group, of which Hugh of Lincoln is one.^ A later 

^ A newly discovered ballad, genuine without doubt, taking its sub- 
ject-matter from a legend of the boyhood of Christ, may be read in 
Guramere, Tlie Popular Ballad, p. 228. Its title is The Bitter Withy. 



xxvi INTRODUCTION 

class are the minstrel ballads that treated romantic 
themes like the story of Young Blcham. There are a 
few humorous ballads, like Get Up and Bar the Door; 
and some of a journalistic order which were made 
quickly upon the occurrence of some event. More im- 
portant are the Border ballads, chronicles told with 
some epic continuity, celebrating the raids and battles 
of the Borderland between England and Scotland. 
Last we come to the greenwood ballads, with outlaws 
like Johnie Cock for heroes, and with Robin Hood, 
"the English ballad-singer's joy" as Wordsworth 
calls him, as outlaw-hero par excellence. These groups 
as given, follow a logical, and approximately a chrono- 
logical, order ; and the ballads in this volume group 
themselves accordingly, in the hope that the reading 
of them consecutively may be convincing evidence of 
ballad beginnings and development. 

Characteristics of Ballads 

Besides the structural essentials of balladry, there 
are many minor characteristics still to be touched 
upon. The most obvious is their concreteness and 
objectivity, and their swift direct movement. If we 
compare Matthew Arnold's Sohrah and Rustum with 
his Dover Beach^ we are conscious at once of the 
broad stretch that lies between objective and sub- 
jective poetry. If, again, we compare Sohrah and 
Rustum with a ballad, say Sir Patrick Sjyence, its 
objectivity shrinks into nothingness. And the two are 
not so far away from each other in matter, either ; both 
present traditional material, Arnold's poem drawing 
its subject faithfully from the Persian Shah Nameh. 
The difference is entirely one of manner. Sohrah and 



INTRODUCTION xxvii 

JRustuni opens with a carefully sketched scene — the 
Oxus stream shrouded in fog, the camp in the back- 
ground ; then Sohrab is introduced, and twenty-five 
lines are consumed before the hero moves or speaks. In 
Sir Patrick Spence it is the king, his court, and the 
whole of his errand in four lines! Arnold's scene changes 
as the day advances ; new characters are formally de- 
scribed and brought into the action ; long conversa- 
tions are held for the sake of explaining the past, 
portraying the characters, and preparing for the crisis. 
There is a certain broad sweep of scene and events, and 
a leisureliness in the telling of them. Arnold always 
has his reader in mind ; he summons him to come and 
look on ; he makes elaborate Homeric similes for his 
advantage ; he means to rouse his emotions ; and the 
verses, graceful, strong, rich, tread the majestic length 
of nine hundred lines ! No such regard for the reader 
of the ballad. If he will come he must jump in medias 
re8, love Sir Patrick without ever knowing who he is, 
follow him to the bottom of the sea without being told 
where he is going, and mourn him, with the Scots ladies, 
without ever having spent more than three minutes in 
his company ! Concreteness, conciseness, objectivity at 
its barest — and yet an art in it all that no one except 
Sir Walter, and he only once,* has ever been able to 
catch. There is in the ballads no solicitous author 
bidding his reader hear, see, think, feel — no Shelley 
surveying his skylark in every possible light, as " the 
poet," the "high born maiden," the "glowworm 
golden," the " rose embowered," for his reader's sake. 
For the ballad one flash of clear white light is enough 
— and what that reveals abides as a single whole. 
^ In Einmont Willie. See p. 83. 



xxviii INTRODUCTION 

To see by the white light, however, is not to be 
blinded by it ; a series of pictures thus revealed shows 
many details that are common to all ballads. First 
we are conscious of a delightful magic that makes the 
wee wee man vanish " clean awa " in the twinkling 
of an eye ; that makes birds talk with the tongues of 
men ; that enables an angry lover to place one hand 
upon the topmast of his ship and one knee at the fore- 
mast and break the craft in two ; that changes a man 
to esk, to adder, to bear, to lion, to red-hot iron, to 
burning gleed, and then by a plunge into cold water 
brings him back again to human shape. And all this 
without apology or preparation — the reader may like 
it or leave it. 

Genuine superstition is also revealed in the ballads. 
Bits of folk-lore appear in Spence's sailor's belief in the 
sign of the " new moone in the auld moone's arm " ; 
in the straking of troth upon the wand in Siveet Wil- 
liains Ghost ; in the conceptions of hell as " rivers 
of red blude " in Thomas Rymer^ or " mountains 
dreary wi' frost and snow " in The Daemon Lover ; 
in the ominous crowing of the red cock and the gray 
in The Wife of Usher s Well. Dreams, too, are sig- 
nificant to ballad folk. Love Gregor's makes his heart 
" right wae " ; Robin Hood is plainly troubled by his 
before he meets Sir Guy, and all Little John's com- 
forting does not reassure him ; Lord Hamleton sees a 
vision of his hall on fire and his lady slain ; and we 
ourselves cannot escape the subtle power of the dreary 
dream of Douglas " beyond the Isle o Skye." 

Another minor characteristic is the use of certain 
mystical numbers. Three is the favorite. Incremental 
repetition almost invariably advances by threes ; in 



INTRODUCTION xxix 

Babylon three sisters are in turn taken by the hand 
and made to stand ; Hind Horn makes three requests 
of the old man, for his " begging coat," his " beggar's 
rung," and his " wig o' hair " ; Lord Thomas asks the 
advice of three — mother, brother, and sister ; and 
Lady Weary begs the nurse three times to stiU her 
child with three different playthings before she goes 
down to her death. There are also multiples of three, 
as in the six questions asked by the Lass of Roch 
Royal at the beginning of the ballad, in the nine 
men who lie in wait for the hero of The Dowy 
Houms o Yarrow. Choices among three often offer 
themselves. Love Gregor's mother calls his sweet- 
heart " witch," " warlock," or " mermaid "; Margaret 
asks the ghost at her door if he is '' father Philip " 
or " brother John " or " truelove WiUy," and begs 
for room at William's " head " or " feet " or by his 
" side " where she may creep and die. Climaxes climb 
up by threes, as in the *' hawk," " hound," and 
"father" of Edward; and there are simple group- 
ings of threes at every turn, — the three sisters of 
The Cruel Brother^ the three squires of Robin 
Hood, the three guineas given as bribe to young 
Bicham's porter, and the three triumphant skips of the 
gude wife because the goodman must up and bar the 
door ! Its most surprising use is where things are cut 
" in three " or hearts " break in three." The number 
five occurs often. " Fingers five, get up belive," says 
Johnie Cock; "five letters," declares the Gay Goss- 
hawk, " he says he 's sent to you " ; five guards are 
called out at first by Kinmont Willie, and later all his 
men march " five and five." Sevens are even more 
common. Seven laverocks and seven diamonds are the 



XXX INTRODUCTION 

love tokens exclianged in Hind Horn; seven years 
was the Daemon Lover away from his mistress, and 
seven ships are her temptation ; seven years must 
Thomas the Rhymer serve his Queen. It seems always 
the favorite measure of time, and a double significance 
is in Bicham's porter having served him " seven years 
and three." Four and twenty is still another good bal- 
lad number — " four and twenty siller bells " and 
" four and twenty gay gude knichts " accompany fair 
Annet, and '' four and twenty bonny boys " play at 
ball with little Sir Hugh. 

Equally interesting are ballad colors — used almost 
entirely in describing dress. Naturally enough they 
are the simpler, elementary colors, — yellow hair, gowns 
green and blue, cloaks purple, and coats scarlet red. 
Robin's men are always of " milk-white skin " and 
always dress in " Lincoln green." Gold is always red, 
silver always white. The more precious metal seems 
common as air and " skinkles " in everything — in 
combs, rings, chains, bells, shoes, roofs, towers, masts ; 
and of gold and silver were many of the furnishings 
of the household, the trappings of horses, the weapons 
of warriors. But ballad descriptions of nature do not 
share in this warmth and profusion. The sun rises and 
sets, moons shine and seasons change, merely as mat- 
ters of the almanac. The best of the few touches we 
have are in the Border and greenwood ballads, where 
the wood folk seem to take a little pleasure in " walk- 
ing in the fayre forest " and in the fellowship of bird 
and deer. There are occasional suggestions that we 
may follow if we choose. Such are the last lines of 
The Three Ravens^ — 



INTRODUCTION xxxi 

On his white hancs, when tliey are bare, 
The wind sail blaw for ever mair, 

or one line of Love Gregor^ — 

The win grew loud, an the sea grew rough, — 
or better still, that splendid stanza of Thomas Hymer^ 

For forty days and forty nights, 

He wode thro red blude to the knee, 

And he saw neither sun nor moon, 
But heard the roaring of the sea. 

But ballads never meant to be suggestive. 

A naive ballad fashion is that of repeating the same 
plots, the same situations, the same kind of characters, 
the same questions and answers, the same messages, 
even the same stanzas over and over again, until they 
become regular ballad formulas, or connuonplaces.^ 
But none of it is plagiarism, for all was common pro- 
perty. Sometimes the repetition becomes most amus- 
ing, as in the case of the overworked " weepen-knife " 
which Babylon uses for stabbing and Johnie Cock 
for carviug ; or in the impression we get that ballad 
mothers were kept busy making beds " soft and nar- 
row" or "broad and wide" at the order of suffering 
sons and daughters ; and that ballad maidens were 
always doing one of two things, " playing at ball " or 
" sewing silken seams." We come to a surety that 
when two lovers are buried, out of one will spring a 
briar and " out of tother the rose "; that ships will 
always have to sail " a league but barely ain " before 
anything happens; and that suing lovers must ever 
stand at the door and "tirl at the pin." It would be 
easy play to make up a ballad phrase-book running 
through the alphabet from "auld beggar man," "blude- 
^ See note 2, page xxii. 



xxxii INTRODUCTION 

reid wine," and " cherry cheeks," all the way to " under 
the leaves of lynde," "well or woe," and " yester e'en." 
The list of epithets is almost fixed : brides are always 
"bonny"; ladies, "fair"; hands, steeds, and faces, 
" milk-white "; ships, " gude "; braes, " ferny "; strokes, 
" sair "; water, " wan "; old men, " silly." Alliterative 
phrases, survivals of the days of initial rhymes, recur 
again and again, — "gold and gear," "busk and boun," 
"kith and kin," "dale and down," " cheek and chin," 
" trusty and trewe." A few similes do good service, — 
steeds amble " like the wind," beautiful maidens 
" shimmer like the sun," warriors " fly like fire about," 
and Little John reminds Robin Hood that dreams are 
swift " as the wind that blowes over a hill." But fig- 
ures of speech are rare in ballads. 

Finally there is an accepted ballad attitude toward 
life. Sentimentality, cynicism, humor, those quali- 
ties that are purely subjective, the result of thinking 
rather than doing ^ are conspicuously absent. Ballad 
people live to act, and act seriously. It is do or die 
with them — oftenest do and die. Some few ballads, like 
Hind Horn and Young Bicham^ have the unexpected 
happy ending of classic comedy, unravelling all the 
tangles of the plot. But parted lovers are more likely 
to meet the fate of Lord Thomas and Fair Annet, or 
Love Gregor and the Lass of Roch Royal. The most 
faithful women are sure to be deserted, the bravest 
sailors to be drowned, and the boldest warriors to be 
slain. The pathos lies always in the event itself, for 
the actors utter neither lamentation nor complaint ; 
they are always " merry men." It was the ballad way 
to look upon death as something as natural as life, and, 
seeing it plainly ahead, to go to meet it. Be the out- 



INTRODUCTION xxxiii 

come as tragic as it may, there is no lingering upon it 
when it is told. 

The Versification of Ballads 
Ballad versification is exceedingly simple. The 
standard foot is the iambus ; stanza and rhyme are 
the two conditions of ballad form. The stanza shows 
three arrangements : it may be made up of two lines, 
each containing four accents, as in The Twa Sisters ; 
or of four lines of four accents (which, when the rhyme 
is alternate, may be readily resolved into two stanzas 
of the first form) as in The Wee Wee Man ; or of four 
lines, as in The Douglas Tragedy^ where the first and 
third have four accents and the second and fourth but 
three. This last form is what is commonly known as 
ballad metre ; and it will be readily recognized as the 
one adopted by a large proportion of English narra- 
tive poems. There are, of course, some variations from 
the type. We find some six-line stanzas, as in Otter- 
hum^ Johnie Coch^ Hugh of Lincoln^ and others, 
where the two extra lines seem an unavoidable over- 
flow of the matter beyond the measure. And occasion- 
ally the identity of the four lines may be obscured by 
repetition, as in Edward^ or The Three Ravens — but 
brush away the additions and the typical stanza is 
there as foundation. 

Rhyme in the regular stanza comes in the second 
and fourth lines. Once in a while the first and third 
rhyme as well, as : — 

When he had eaten and drunk his fill, 
*' Lay down your head upon my knee " 

The lady sayd, " Ere we climb you hill, 
And I will show you fairlies three." 



xxxiv INTRODUCTION 

Less frequently we find rhyme within the line, — 
For the wine so red, and the well-broken bread. 

And occasionally occurs identical rhyme, — the rhym- 
ing of a word with itself, evidently, as with Chaucer, 
considered normal, — as in The Wife of Usher s 

Well: — 

" Blow up the fire, my maidens, 
Bring water from the well ; 
For a' my house shall feast this night, 
Since my three sons are well." 

In many cases there is utter neglect of rhyme, as in 
this stanza from Hind Horn^ — 

" Will ye lend me your begging coat ? 
And I '11 lend you my scarlet cloak," 

where the assonance in "cloak" and "coat" seems to 
be expected to do full duty. Often the same service 
is performed by alliteration ; and a peculiar ballad 
use of alliteration is to connect consecutive lines. So 
in Captain Car we find the I doing this. 

The ladie she lend on her castle-wall, 
She loked up and downe. 

Remembering that ballads were never set down and 
rigidly scanned by an anxious author, and the only 
requisite was that they should sound right, we should 
not be annoyed by what our eyes may see in the way 
of irregularities, but trust to our ears — rather more 
than in other forms of poetry — to smooth the verse. 
Syllables must often be slurred over to keep the 
number of accents in a line within the limit: there 
is no other way to right this stanza of The Cruel 
Brother^ — 

Ride s6ftly 6n, says the bdst young mjln. 

For I think our b6nny bride looks pdle and w^n. 



INTRODUCTION xxxv 

" For I think our " was doubtless a careless addition 
at some time to a line that was perfectly clear if be- 
ginning with " our." Conversely a line from which a 
syllable has perhaps been lost must often be lengthened 
by the device familiar enough in reading Shakespeare 
— of resolving one syllable into two ; and final e or ed^ 
and the possessive 's, must frequently be pronounced 
as a separate syllable, — 

It befel at Martynmas 
When wether waxed cold, 

and 

When he came to the king''s gate, 

He sought a drink for Hind Horn's sake. 

In some cases, however, no amount of slurring will 
smooth the metre to our entire satisfaction : — 

" Thou shalt have no parson, thou traytor strong. 
For thy eight score men nor thee ; 
For to-morrow morning by ten of the clock, 

Both thou and them shall hang on the gallows-tree." 

The general iambic movement, too, is often varied. 
Trochees often occur, especially at the beginning of a 

line : — 

Busk yee, bonne yee, my merry men all. 

In Bonnie George Camphell we get an unusual dactylic 
effect throughout ; and in The Bonny Earl of Murraij 
a wholly individual three-accent line, with frequent 
use of the slow anapest. But it is always to be remem- 
bered that whatever singing ^ could do in olden 
days to even the roughnesses of the verse — and they 
are comparatively few — we should force our reading 

1 A collection of ballad tunes may be found in Child, v, 411-424 ; 
there may one learn the airs of The Twa Sinters, The Cruel Brother, 
Hind Horn, Sir Patrick Spence, Bonny Barbara Allan, and other 
old favorites. 



xxxvi INTRODUCTION 

to do in these latter days, without fear of sing-song, 
for sing-song is, after aU, the stately metre of balladry. 
A word more as to the ballad refrain. Having its 
origin in the primitive throng, we should expect to 
find its older forms nothing but a meaningless series 
of sounds like the " With a fal lal lal " of Hind Horn 
or the " downe derrie, derrie, derrie, downe, downe " 
of The Three Ravens. A step toward more definite 
measuring is taken in Bahylon^ where the " Eh vow 
bonnie " voices the lament, and '* On the bonnie banks 
o Fordie " names the place of the tragedy. Such 
place naming, however, cannot always be relied on, for 
in one version of The Twa Sisters ^ we find this curi- 
ous combination of three Scotch cities : — 

There was twa sisters in a bowr, 

Edinburgh, Edinburgh. 
There was twa sisters in a bowr, 

Stirling for ay. 
There was twa sisters in a bowr. 
There came a knight to be their wooer. 

Bonny Saint Johnston stands upon Tay. 

Sometimes the refrain keys itself to the gloom of the 
tale, as in Captain Car ; again, in The Cruel Brother, 
it follows the happy tone of the beginning, but after 
the bonny bride is stabbed, its very merriment gives 
the touch of dramatic contrast that intensifies tra- 
gedy. To our reading eyes the refrain seems an incum- 
brance to the story, and even where we enjoy it 
for its own sake we hardly have patience to repeat it 
after every stanza. This is exactly what we should do, 
however, if we are to know a ballad as a ballad."^ 

1 See Notes, p. 116. 

^ No attempt has been made here to differentiate chorus, burden, 
and refrain. Briefly the chorus was sung afler each stanza ; the bur- 



INTRODUCTION xxxvii 

Later History of Ballads 

We have said much of the origin and development 
of ballads, but nothing so far of their decadence. 
Plainly enough they belong to the vanished past ; 
primitive society could not endure forever. Ballads of 
the purest type, as we have seen, were of the tradi- 
tional form. Next came the day of the minstrel bal- 
lad, when the throng fell back, and the minstrel 
came to the front, affecting little by little the lofty 
manners of the aristocracy whom it was his business 
to entertain. These ballads are romantic metrical tales 
rather than songs of the folk ; they sound professional 
and '' do not go," says Professor Child, " to the spin- 
ning wheel at all." Later still, with the advent of print- 
ing — when the minstrel was classed with "rogues, 
vagabonds, and sturdy beggars " — came the inferior 
broadside ballads, hawked about the streets, in the 
seventeenth century, by ballad-mongers of whom 
Shakespeare's Autolycus is a type, and of whom Hot- 
spur says, — 

I had rather be a kitten and cry mew 

Than one of these same metre ballad-mongers. 

The term broadside may be applied to two sets of bal- 
lads : those familiar ones printed for a penny on single 
large sheets, to satisfy the public demand ; and those 
actually made by some huckster, to be praised, not for 
his skill, but for preserving for us some genuine bits 

den was sung- by the people while the minstrel sang- the stanza ; the 
refrain was the line sung after certain lines in every stanza. It is not 
possible to be sure always — as the manuscripts were printed — 
whether the additional choral matter was used as chorus, burden, or 
refrain. But what is said here of the matter and effect of the refrain 
applies to all three forms. 



xxxviii INTRODUCTION. 

here and there which might otherwise have been 
totally lost. Broadsides were sometimes collected into 
bound volumes known as garlands, and so profited by 
a more enduring form. Many of the Robin Hood bal- 
lads are broadsides, — so great a favorite was this 
old hero, — and the version of Rohin Hood's Deaths 
printed in this volume, although in a splendid old 
strain, was preserved in a York garland. At the same 
time many journalistic ballads were abroad, newspaper 
reports in verse, as it were, celebrating some current 
event, — conspiracy, battle, fire, execution, — made 
hurriedly with all the marks of the making upon 
them, and, in comparison with the lilt of traditional 
songs, nothing but '^ hopeless jog trot." These, accord- 
ing to our definition, have not the slightest claim to 
be called traditional ballads. Finally, like every good 
thing, ballads were subject to imitation. The counter- 
feits were often made out of whole cloth, and often a 
curious blending of old ballads. But the manufactured 
article was usually a poor thing, only the author's 
" own." Scott came miraculously near the real thing 
in making over traditional stuff in Kinmont Willie; ^ 
but Scott was possessed of the spirit of balladry, was 
to the manner born. 

Through this course of development baUads have 
come to have many different versions. Among them 
all, how is one to know the worthiest traditional form? 
What is obviously manufactured can be discarded at 
once as chaff ; but even then there is a deal of Avheat 
left to be sifted. How this is done by an expert, the 
student may see by reading the introduction to any 
ballad in Professor Child's great collection of English 

1 See Notes, p. 165. 



INTRODUCTION xxxix 

and Scottish Poj)ular Ballads. There is printed every 
extant version of every ballad that could possibly be 
procured, each witli its own title, date of record, and 
source. These texts are prefaced by a careful de- 
scription of kindred traditional material — whether 
ballad, legend, romance, or folk-tale — in the litera- 
tures of Scandinavia, Germany, Denmark, Iceland, 
Italy, Hungary, or any other country, — every possi- 
ble clue being followed to its end. By this method 
of comparison truly traditional stuff would show up at 
once, and a striking detail in only one version of the 
ballad, found nowhere else, would naturally fall under 
suspicion ; in general, most faith would be placed in 
what occurred oftenest. The criteria of objectivity and 
simplicity also have their own weight. Then after an 
approximation of this kind to the most genuine, little 
can be said for giving absolute precedence to one text 
over another. " There are texts, but there is no text." ^ 
In choosing, poetic beauty comes to its own ; and that 
version is the best for each of us that grips us hardest 
and clings to us longest, — in short, that comes to stay 
as did old ballads to old ballad people. 

Date of Ballads 

How old " old ballads " are, no one can say. We 
can be sure that from the days when heroic deeds were 
done people found a way of celebrating them in song, 
and handing them down from generation to genera- 
tion. We can be equally sure that a ballad lived long 
before the date against it in the manuscript, that 
merely marking the year of its being put on record. 

1 Kittredg-e, Introduction to English and Scottish Popular Ballads, 
Cambridge Ed., p. xvii. 



xl INTRODUCTION 

Few baUads are extant in manuscripts older than tlie 
seventeenth century. The oldest known ballad manu- 
script, that of Judas^ goes as far back as the thirteenth 
century. Otterhiirn^ The Hunting of the Cheviot^ and 
Captain Car date from about 1550. The Percy MS. 
was in a hand of about 1650. Many miscellanies 
and broadsides came in the seventeenth century, but 
it is to the collectors of the eighteenth and nine- 
teenth centuries that we owe the most. Among these 
the first place belongs to Bishop Percy. In Shropshire 
he accidentally came upon an old folio of ballads and 
romances which was being used, page by page, by the 
maids to light their fires. This was a genuine ballad 
manuscript, and Percy, with its fragments safe in his 
possession, was £red with a zeal to hunt down other 
similar material and to press into the service all his 
friends and correspondents. Unfortunately, in printing 
his results. Bishop Percy altered and revised at will, 
lest the rudeness and indelicacy of the noble old bal- 
lads might shock the tender taste of the eighteenth 
century.^ Scott, too, organized his own body of bal- 
lad-scouts, and his harvest rests in the Border Min- 
strelsy^ Scottish Songs^ and the Abbotsford MSS.' 
Ramsay, Herd, Ritson, Jamieson, Mrs. Brown of 

1 See Child, I, 242. 

^ The Percy MS. was long in the keeping of Bishop Percy's descend- 
ants, who would allow no one to examine it. Professor- Child, in mak- 
ing his collection, realized that he could do little without access to 
this manuscript. Dr. Furnivall, at his suggestion, finally induced the 
owners to allow the full contents of the old folio to be printed. An edi- 
tion prepared by Professor Hales and Dr. Furnivall and dedicated to 
Professor Child was published in 1867-68. 

3 These also were discovered in 1890 through a search instigated by 
Professor Child's belief that Scott possessed much manuscript mate- 
rial which he had never published. 



INTRODUCTION xli 

Falkland, whose memory was a storehouse o£ old 
songs, Sharpe, Motherwell, Kinloch, Buchan, and 
Aytoiin, are all names to be remembered with grati- 
tude by those who love ballads. Roughly speaking, 
these sources cover the years from 1750 to 1850 — 
the century in which the spirit of ballad collecting 
was strongest. The collectors have done all they 
could to save from perishing every fragment of an 
English or Scottish ballad hiding itself away any- 
where in the memories of men. And from their 
gatherings Professor Child sifted, and preserved in 
his collection, every version of every traditional ballad 
then known to exist in the English or Scottish tongue. 
So through the ages from an undated past to the 
present the ballad songs of 

" old, unhappy, far off things, 
And battles long ago " 

have never been silenced. They have known all the 
vicissitudes of fortune. They have basked in sunny 
days when lord and prince loved them, when they were 
so much a code of right and wrong to the people that it 
was said by Andrew Fletcher of the seventeenth cen- 
tury that "if a man were permitted to make all the 
ballads, he need not care who should make the laws of 
a nation." They have endured years of banishment, 
when they lingered about the edges of a kingdom where 
elegance, sophistication, and formality sat upon the 
throne, and ballads were invited to court, if at all, as 
curiosities. They lived to be occasionally remembered 
later by a self-complacent literature — recognized but 
patronized like the poor relations of the great. Finally 
they have come again to their own, and are loved to- 
day with a genuine love that shall more and more pre- 



xUi INTRODUCTION 

vail; loved not in spite of, but by reason of, their 
crudities and their grace, their absurdities and their 
common sense, their childishness and their worldly- 
wisdom, their humility and their dignity, their bru- 
tality and their chivalry, — just those elemental contra- 
dictions in their make-up that endear all human souls 
to us. They may in their awkwardness have broken 
" the golden lilies afloat " on the river of poetry, and 
have put to flight the filmy dragon-fly. But they also 
" hacked and hewed " at their reeds as a " great god 
can," and brought forth from their pipes the piercing 
sweet tones for which many of the " true gods " are 
sigliing in vain to-day. 



THE DOUGLAS TRAGEDY 

1. «* Rise up, rise up, now. Lord Douglas," she says, 

" And put on your armour so bright. 
Let it never be said that a daughter of thine 
Was married to a lord under night. 

2. " Rise up, rise up, my seven bold sons, 

And put on your armour so bright. 
And take better care of your youngest sister, 
For your eldest 's awa the last night." 

3. He's mounted her on a milk-white steed. 

And himself on a dapple grey. 
With a bugelet horn hung down by his side, 
And lightly they rode away. 

4. Lord William lookit oer his left shoulder, 

To see what he could see. 
And there he spy'd her seven brethren bold. 
Come riding over the lee. 

5. "Light down, light down, Lady Margret," he 

said. 
And hold my steed in your hand, 
Until that against your seven brethren bold. 
And your father I mak a stand." 

6. She held his steed in her milk-white hand. 

And never shed one tear, 



2 POPULAR BALLADS 

Until that she saw her seven brethren fa, 

And her father hard fighting, who lovd her so 
dear. 

7. " hold your hand. Lord William ! " she said, 

'' For your strokes they are wondrous sair; 
True lovers I can get many a ane, 
But a father I can never get niair." 

8. O she 's taen out her handkerchief, 

It was o the holland sae fine. 
And aye she dighted her father's bloody wounds, 
That were redder than the wine. 

9. " O chuse, O chuse, Lady Margret," he said, 

" O whether will ye gang or bide ? " 
" I '11 gang, 1 '11 gang. Lord William," she said, 
" For ye have left me no other guide." 

10. He 's lifted her on a milk-white steed, 

And himself on a dapple grey, 
With a bugelet horn hung down by his side, 
And slowly they baith rade away. 

11. O they rade on, and on they rade, 

And a' by the light of the moon, 
Until they came to yon wan water. 
And there they lighted down. 

12. They lighted down to tak a drink 

Of the spring that ran sae clear, 
And down the stream ran his gude heart's blood, 
And sair she gan to fear. 



POPULAR BALLADS 3 

13. " Hold up, hold up, Lord William," she says, 

" For I fear that you are slain;" 
" 'T is naetliing but the shadow of my scarlet 
cloak. 
That shines in the water sae plain." 

14. O they rade on, and on they rade, 

And a' by the light of the moon. 
Until they cam to his mother's ha door, 
And there they lighted down. 

15. " Get up, get up, lady mother," he says, 

" Get up, and let me in ! 
Get up, get up, lady mother," he says, 
" For this night my fair lady I 've win. 

16. " O mak my bed, lady mother," he says, 

" O mak it braid and deep. 
And lay lady Margret close at my back. 
And the sounder I will sleep." 

17. Lord William was dead lang ere midnight, 

Lady Margret lang ere day. 
And all true lovers that go thegither. 
May they have mair luck than they ! 

18. Lord William was buried in St. Mary's kirk. 

Lady Margret in Mary's quire ; 
Out o the lady's grave grew a bonny red rose, 
And out o the knight's a brier. 

19. And they twa met, and they twa plat, 

And fain they wad be near; 



POPULAR BALLADS 

And a' the warld might ken right weel 
They were twa lovers dear. 

20. But bye and rade the Black Douglas, 
And wow but he was rough ! 
For he puUd up the bonny brier, 
And flang 't in St. Mary's Loch. 



THE TWA SISTERS 

1. There was twa sisters in a bowr, 

Binnorie, O Binnorie 
There was twa sisters in a bowr, 

Binnorie, O Binnorie 
There was twa sisters in a bowr, 
There came a knight to be their wooer, 

By the bonny mill-dams of Binnorie. 

2. He courted the eldest wi glove an ring, 
But he lovd the youngest above a' thing. 

3. He courted the eldest wi brotch an knife, 
But lovd the youngest as his life. 

4. The eldest she was vexed sair, 
An much envi'd her sister fair. 

5. Into her bowr she could not rest, 
Wi grief an spite she almos brast. 

6. Upon a morning fair an clear. 
She cried upon her sister dear : 



POPULAR BALLADS 

7. " O sister, come to yon sea stran, 

An see our father's ships come to Ian." 

8. She 's taen her by the milk-white han, 
An led her down to yon sea stran. 

9. The younges[t] stood upon a stane, 
The eldest came an threw her in. 

10. She tooke her by the middle sma, 
An dashd her bonny back to the jaw. 

11. " O sister, sister, tak my han, 

An Ise mack you heir to a' my Ian. 

12. " O sister, sister, tak my middle, 

An yes get my goud and my gouden girdle. 

13. " O sister, sister, save my life. 

An I swear Ise never be nae man's wife." 

14. " Foul fa the han that I should tacke, 
It twin'd me an my wardles make. 

15. " Your cherry cheeks an yallow hair 
Gars me gae maiden for evermair." 

16. Sometimes she sank, an sometimes she swam, 
Till she came down yon bonny mill-dam. 

17. O out it came the miUer's son. 
An saw the fair maid swimmin in. 



POPULAR BALLADS 

18. " O father, father, draw your dam, 
Here 's either a mermaid or a swan." 



19. The miller quickly drew the dam, 
An there he found a drownd woman. 

20. You coudna see her yallow hair 

For gold and pearle that were so rare. 

21. You coudna see her middle sma 

For gouden girdle that was sae braw, 

22. You coudna see her fingers white. 
For gouden rings that was sae gryte. 

23. An by there came a harper fine. 
That harped to the king at dine. 

24. When he did look that lady upon, 
He sighd and made a heavy moan. 

25. He *s taen three locks o her yallow hair, 
An wi them sti'ung his harp sae fair. 

26. The first tune he did play and sing. 
Was, " Farewell to my father the king." 

27. The nextin tune that he playd syne. 
Was, " Farewell to my mother the queen." 

28. The lasten tune that he playd then, 
Was, " Wae to my sister, fair Ellen." 



POPULAR BALLADS 

THE CRUEL BROTHER 

1. There was three ladies playd at the ba, 

With a hey ho and a lillie gay 
There came a knight and played oer them a'. 
As the primrose spreads so sweetly. 

2. The eldest was baith tall and fair, 
But the youngest was beyond compare. 

3. The midmost had a graceful mien, 

But the youngest lookd like beautie's queen. 

4. The knight bowd low to a' the three, 
But to the youngest he bent his knee. 

5. The ladie turned her head aside, 

The knight he woo'd her to be his bride. 

6. The ladie blushd a rosy red. 

And sayd, " Sir knight, I m too young to wed.' 

7. " O ladie fair, give me your hand. 

And I '11 make you ladie of a' my land." 

8. " Sir knight, ere ye my favor win. 
You maun get consent frae a' my kin." 

9. He 's got consent frae her parents dear, 
And likewise frae her sisters fair. 

10. He 's got consent frae her kin each one. 
But forgot to spiek to her brother John, 



8 POPULAR BALLADS 

11. Now, when the wecldmg day was come, 

The knight would take his bonny bride home. 

12. And many a lord and many a knight 
. Came to behold that ladie bright. 

13. And there was nae man that did her see 
But wishd himself bridegroom to be. 

14. Her father dear led her down the stair, 
And her sisters twain they kissd her there. 

15. Her mother dear led her thro the closs, 
And her brother John set her on her horse. 

16. She leand her oer the saddle-bow, 
To give him a kiss ere she did go. 

17. He has taen a knife, baith lang and sharp, 
And stabbd that bonny bride to the heart. 

18. She hadno ridden half thro the town. 
Until her heart's blude staind her gown. 

19. " Ride softly on," says the best young man, 

" For I think our bonny bride looks pale and wan." 

20. " O lead me gently up yon hill. 

And I '11 there sit down, and make my will." 

21. " O what will you leave to your father dear?" 
" The silver-shode steed that brought me here." 



POPULAR BALLADS 9 

22. " What will you leave to your mother dear ? '' 
" My velvet pall and my silken gear." 

23. " What will you leave to your sister Anne ? " 
" My silken scarf and my gowden fan." 

24. " What will you leave to your sister Grace ? " 
" My bloody cloaths to wash and dress." 

25. " What will you leave to your brother John ? " 
" The gallows-tree to hang him on." 

26. " What will you leave to your brother John's 

wife?" 
" The wilderness to end her life." 

27. This ladie fair in her grave was laid, 
And many a mass was oer her said. 

28. But it would have made your heart right sair. 
To see the bridegroom rive his haire. 



EDWARD 

1. " Why dois your brand sae drap wi bluid, 

Edward, Edward, 
Why dois your brand sae drap wi bluid, 

And why sae sad gang yee O ? " 
"01 hae killed my hauke sae guid, 

Mither, mither, 
O I hae killed my hauke sae guid, 
And I had nae mair bot hee O." 



10 POPULAR BALLADS 

2. " Your haukis bluid was nevir sae reid, 

Edward, Edward, 
Your haukis bluid was nevir sae reid. 

My deir son I tell thee O." 
"01 hae killed my reid-roan steid, 

Mither, mither, 
O I hae killed my reid-roan steid, 
That erst was sae fair and frie O." 

3. " Your steid was auld, and ye hae gat mair, 

Edward, Edward, 
Your steid was auld, and ye hae gat mair, 

Sum other dule ye drie O." 
"01 hae killed my f adir deir, 

Mither, mither, 
O I hae killed my f adir deir, 
Alas, and wae is mee O ! " 

4. " And whatten penance wul ye drie for that, 

Edward, Edward, 
And whatten penance will ye drie for that ? 

My deir son, now tell me O." 
" He set my feit in yonder boat, 

Mither, mither, 
He set my feit in yonder boat. 
And He fare ovir the sea O." 

5. " And what wul ye doe wi your towirs and your ha, 

Edward, Edward? 
And what wul you doe wi your towirs and your ha. 

That were sae fair to see O ? " 
"He let thame stand tul they doun fa, 

Mither, mither. 



POPULAR BALLADS 11 

He let tliame stand till they down fa, 
For here nevir mair maun I bee O." 

6. " And what wul ye leive to your bairns and your 

wife, 

Edward, Edward? 
And what wul ye leive to your bairns and your 
wife, 
Whan ye gang ovir the sea O? " 
" The warldis room, late them beg thrae life, 

Mither, mither. 
The warldis room, late them beg thrae life, 
For thame nevir mair wul I see O." 

7. " And what wul ye leive to your ain mither deir, 

Edward, Edward ? 
And what wul ye leive to your ain mither deir ? 

My deir son, now tell me O." 
" The curse of hell frae me sail ye beir, 

Mither, mither. 
The curse of hell frae me sail ye beir, 
Sic counseils ye gave to me O." 

BABYLON; OR, THE BONNIE BANKS O 
FORDIE 

1. There were three ladies lived in a bower, 

Eh vow bonnie 
And they went out to pull a flower, 
On the bonnie banks o Fordie 

2. They hadna pu'ed a flower but ane, 
When up started to them a banisht man. 



12 POPULAR BALLADS 

3. He 's taen the first sister by her hand, 

And he 's turned her round and made her stand. 

4. " It 's whether will ye be a rank robber's wife, 
Or will ye die by my wee pen-knife ? " 

5. " It 's 1 11 not be a rank robber's wife, 
But I 'U rather die by your wee pen-knife." 

6. He 's killed this may, and he 's laid her by, 
For to bear the red rose company. 

7. He 's taken the second ane by the hand. 

And he 's turned her round and made her stand. 

8. " It 's whether will ye be a rank robber's wife, 
Or will ye die by my wee pen-knife? " 

9. *' I '11 not be a rank robber's wife, 

But I '11 rather die by your wee pen-knife." 

10. He 's killed this may, and he 's laid her by. 
For to bear the red rose company. 

11. He 's taken the youngest ane by the hand. 
And he 's turned her round and made her stand. 

12. Says, " Will ye be a rank robber's wife. 
Or will ye die by my wee pen-knife ? " 

13. " I '11 not be a rank robber's wife. 
Nor will I die by your wee pen-knife. 



POI'llI.AIi liAIJ.ADS 13 

14. "For I h:u' :i \)H)l\ivv In tliis wood. 
And ^iii yi^ kill nic, it's lu; '11 kill tlu'c^" 

15. " Wliat's lliy hiollici's n:iin(5? conn', tidl to uw,.^^ 
" My brother's iianic is liahy liOii." 

10. "O Histor, sisl-cr, what have I done! 
() havt^ I doni^ this ill to tluu; I 

17. "() siiKMi I \c (Ioik; this evil deed, 
Good sail nevei- \n) seiiii o iiKi." 

18. Ih^s taken out his w(H'. pen-knife, 

And he's twyned hiins(^l o his ain swec^t life. 



IIIND HORN 

1. In S(M)tiand theic^ was a l)al)i(! horn, 

And his nain(! it was called young Hind Horn. 
Lili«^ lal, et(^ With :i I'al hd, ete. 

2. lie sent a lettei* to our kin^- 

That h(^ was in lov(i with his danj;hter J(^an, 

)]. Ilea's ^i<'n to h<'r a silver wand. 

With sev(!n living- lavroeks sitting- tluu'eon. 

4. She's gicMi to him a diamond ring, 
With seven bright diamonds stit tluu'ein. 

5. " VVIuui this ring grows pale and wan. 
You may know by it my lov(5 is gan(^" 



14 POPULAR BALLADS 

6. One day as he looked his ring upon, 
He saw the diamonds pale and wan. 

7. He left the sea and came to land, 

And the first that he met was an old beggar man. 

8. " What news, what news ? " said young Hind Horn ; 
" No news, no news," said the old beggar man. 

9. " No news," said the beggar, " no news at a', 
But there 's a wedding in the king's ha. 

10. " But there is a wedding in the king's ha, 
That has halden these forty days and twa." 

11. " Will ye lend me your begging coat ? 
And I '11 lend you my scarlet cloak. 

12. "Will you lend me your beggar's rung? 
And I '11 gie you my steed to ride upon. 

13. "Will you lend me your wig o hair, 
To cover mine, because it is fair?" 

14. The auld beggar man was bound for the mill, 
But young Hind Horn for the king's hall. 

15. The auld beggar man was bound for to ride, 
But young Hind Horn was bound for the bride. 

16. When he came to the king's gate. 

He sought a drink for Hind Horn's sake. 



POPULAR BALLADS 15 

17. The bride came down with a glass of wine, 
When he drank out the glass, and dropt in the 

ring. 

18. " O got ye this by sea or land? 

Or got ye it off a dead man's hand ? " 

19. "I got not it by sea, I got it by land, 

And I got it, madam, out of your own hand." 

20. " O I '11 cast off my gowns of brown. 
And beg wi you frae town to town. 

21. "01 '11 cast off my gowns of red, 
And I '11. beg wi you to win my bread." 

22. " Ye needna cast off your gowns of brown, 
For I '11 make you lady o many a town. 

23. " Ye needna cast off your gowns of red. 

It 's only a sham, the begging o my bread." 

24. The bridegroom he had wedded the bride, 
But young Hind Horn he took her to bed. 



LORD THOMAS AND FAIR ANNET 

1. Lord Thomas and Fair Annet 
Sate a' day on a hill ; 
Whan night was cum, and sun was sett. 
They had not talkt their M. 



16 POPULAR BALLADS 

2. Lord Thomas said a word in jest, 

Fair Annet took it ill : 
" A, I will nevir wed a wife 
Against my ain friends' will." 

3. " Gif ye wnll nevir wed a wife, 

A wife wull neir wed yee : " 
Sae he is hame to tell his mither, 
And knelt upon his knee. 

4. " O rede, O rede, mither," he says, 

" A gude rede gie to mee ; 

sail 1 tak the nut-browne bride. 
And let Faire Annet bee ? " 

5. " The mit-browne bride haes gowd and gear, 

Fair Annet she has gat nane ; 
And the little beauty Fair Annet haes 
O it wull soon be gane." 

6. And he has till his brother gane : 

'' Now, brother, rede ye mee ; 
A, sail I marrie the nut-browne bride. 
And let Fair Annet bee ? " 

7. " The nut-browne bride has oxen, brother, 

The nut-browne bride has k3^e ; 

1 wad hae ye marrie the luit-browne bride. 

And cast Fair Annet bye." 

8. " Her oxen may dye i the house, billie. 

And her kye into the byre. 
And I sail hae nothing to mysell 
Bot a fat fadge by the fyre." 



POPULAR BALLADS 17 

9. And lie has till Lis sister gane : 
*' Now, sister, rede ye mee ; 
O sail I marrie the nut-browne bride, 
And set Fair Annet free ? " 

10. " I 'se rede ye tak Fair Annet, Thomas, 

And let the browne bride alane ; 
•Lest ye sould sigh, and say, Alace, 
What is this we brought hanie ! " 

11. ^' No, I will tak my mither's comisel, 

And marrie me owt o hand ; 
And I will tak the nut-browne bride, 
Fair Annet may leive the land." 

12. Up then rose Fair Annet's father, 

Twa hours or it wer day. 

And he is gane into the bower 

Wherein Fair Annet lay. 

13. " Rise up, rise up. Fair Annet," he says, 

" Put on your silken sheene ; 
Let us gae to St. Marie's kirke, 
And see that rich weddeen." 

14. " My maides, gae to my dressing-roome, 

And dress to me my hair ; 
Whaireir yee laid a plait before. 
See yee lay ten times mair. 

15. " My maids, gae to my dressing-room, 

And dress to me my smock ; 
The one half is o the holland fine, 
The other o needle-work." 



18 POPULAR BALLADS 

16. The horse Fair Annet rade upon, 

He amblit like the wind ; 
Wi siller he was shod before, 
Wi burning gowd behind. 

17. Four and twanty siller bells 

Wer a' tyed till his mane, 
And yae tift o the norland wind, 
They tinkled ane by ane. 

18. Four and twanty gay gude knichts 

Rade by Fair Annet's side, 

And four and twanty fair ladies. 

As gin she had bin a bride. 

19. And whan she cam to Marie's kirk, 

She sat on Marie's stean : 
The cleading that Fair Annet had on 
It skinkled in their een. 

20. And whan she cam into the kirk, 

She shimmerd like the sun ; 
The belt that was about her waist 
Was a' wi pearles bedone. 

21. She sat her by the nut-browne bride. 

And her een they wer sae clear, 
Lord Thomas he clean forgat the bride, 
Whan Fair Annet drew near. 

22. He had a rose into his hand. 

He gae it kisses three. 
And reaching by the nut-browne bride, 
Laid it on Fair Annet's knee. 



POPULAR BALLADS 19 

23. Up than spak the nut-browne bride, 

She spak wi meikle spite : 
" And whair gat ye that rose-water, 
That does mak yee sae white ? " 

24. "01 did get the rose-water 

Whair ye wuU neir get nane, 
For I did get that very rose-water 
Into my mither's wame." 

25. The bride she drew a long bodkin 

Frae out her gay head-gear, 
And strake Fair Annet unto the heart, 
That word spak nevir mair. 

26. Lord Thomas he saw Fair Annet wex pale. 

And marvelit what mote bee ; 
But whan he saw her dear heart's blude, 
A' wood-wroth wexed hee. 

27. He drew his dagger, that was sae sharp, 

That was sae sharp and meet. 
And drave it into the nut-browne bride, 
That fell deid at his feit. 

28. " Now stay for me, dear Annet," he sed, 

" Now stay, my dear," he cry'd ; 
Then strake the dagger untill his heart, 
And fell deid by her side. 

29. Lord Thomas was buried without kirkwa, 

Fair Annet within the quiere. 
And o the tane thair grew a birk. 
The other a bonny briere. 



20 POPULAR BALLADS 

30. And ay thoy <;row, aiul ay they threw, 
As they wad t'aiiie be iieare ; 
And by this ye may ken right weil 
They were twa hivers deare. 



LOVE gri^:gor 

1. *'0 Wll.v will shoe my fu fair foot? 

And wha will glove my hand? 
And wha will laee my middle jimp, 
Wi the new made London band? 

2. " And wha will kaim my yellow hair, 

Wi the new made silver kaim ? 
And wha will father my yonng son, 
Till Love Gregor come hame? " 

3. " Yonr father will shoe yonr fn fair foot, 

Yonr mother will glove yonr hand ; 
Yonr sister will lace yonr middle jimp 
Wi the new^ made London band. 

4. " Yonr brother will kaim yonr yellow hair, 

Wi the new made silver kaim ; 
And the king of heaven will father yonr bairn. 
Till Love (jiregor eome haim. " 

6. " Bnt T will get a bonny boat. 
And I will sail the sea. 
For 1 mann gang to Love Gregor, 
Since he canno eome hame to tiie." 



POPULAR BALLADS 21 

6. O she has gotten a bonny boat, 

And sailld the sa't sea fame ; 

She langd to see her ain true-love, 

Since he could no come hame. 

7. " O row your boat, my mariners, 

And bring me to the land, 
For yonder I see my love's castle, 
Closs by the sa't sea strand." 

8. She has taen her young son in her arms. 

And to the door she 's gone. 
And lang she 's knocked and sair she ca'd, 
But answer got she none. 

9. " O open the door, Love Gregor," she says, 

" O open, and let me in ; 
For the win blaws thro my yellow hair. 
And the rain draps oer my chin." 

10. *' Awa, awa, ye ill woman. 

You 'r nae come here for good ; 
You 'r but some witch, or wile warlock, 
Or mer-maid of the flood." 

11. " I am neither a witch nor a wile warlock, 

Nor mer-maid of the sea, 
I am Fair Annie of Rough Royal ; 
O open the door to me." 

12. " Gin ye be Annie of Rough Royal — 

And I trust ye are not she — 
Now tell me some of the love-tokens 
That past between you and me." 



22 POPULAR BALLADS 

13. " O dinna you mind now, Love Gregor, 

When we sat at the wine, 
How we changed the rings frae our fingers? 
And I can show thee thine. 

14. " O yours was good, and good enneugh, 

But ay the best was mine ; 
For yours was o the good red goud. 
But mine o the dimonds fine. 

15. " But open the door now. Love Gregor, 

O open the door I pray. 
For your young son that is in my arms 
Will be dead ere it be day." 

16. " Awa, awa, ye ill woman. 

For here ye shanno win in ; 
Gae drown ye in the raging sea. 
Or hang on the gallows-pin." 

17. When the cock had crawn, and day did dawn, 

And the sun began to peep. 

Then it raise him Love Gregor, 

And sair, sair did he weep. 

18. "01 dreamd a dream, my mother dear, 

The thoughts o it gars me greet, 
That Fair Annie of Rough Royal 
Lay cauld dead at my feet." 

19. " Gin it be for Annie of Rough Royal 

That ye make a' this din. 
She stood a' last night at this door, 
But I trow she wan no in." 



POPULAR BALLADS 23 

20. " O wae betide ye, ill woman, 

An ill dead may ye die ! 
That ye woudno open the door to her, 
Nor yet woud waken me." 

21. O he has gone down to yon shore-side, 

As fast as he could fare ; 
He saw Fair Annie in her boat. 
But the wind it tossed her sair. 

22. And " Hey, Annie ! " and " How, Annie ! 

O Annie, winna ye bide ? " 
But ay the mair that he cried Annie, 
The braider grew the tide. 

23. And " Hey, Annie ! " and '' How Annie ! 

Dear Annie speak to me ! " 
But ay the louder he cried Annie, 
The louder roard the sea. 

24. The wind blew loud, the sea grew rough. 

And dashd the boat on shore ; 
Fair Annie floats on the raging sea. 
But her young son raise no more. 

25. Love Gregor tare his yellow hair, 

And made a heavy moan ; 
Fair Annie's corpse lay at his feet. 
But his bonny young son was gone. 

26. O cherry, cherry was her cheek. 

And gowden was her hair. 
But clay cold were her rosey lips, 
Nae spark of life was there. 



24 I'OrULAR HALLADS 

"21. And lirst lu>' s kissd Ium* cluMry clicek, 
And niMsl. hv 's kissed lior cliin ; 
And saftly pvoasod Ium- rosey lips. 
But. tluMH' was nac hrcatli within. 

28. '' () wae bi't idt' my cruol niotlior. 
And an ill dead may she dio ! 
For slu» tnrnd my trno-love frao my door, 
When she came sae far to me." 



BONNY liAKBAKA ALLAN 



1. 1 r was in and about (he Martinnias time, 
^Vhen tlu> i»;reen leaves were a i'allini;', 
'I'hat Sir »lohn (ira^me, in the West C\)untry 
lU'll in love with Barbara Allan. 



2. lie s(Mit his man down throni;h the town, 
To the place wher(» she was dwelling: 
** O haste and eonu* to my master dear, 
(;in vebe Barbara Allan." 



8. O hooly, hooly rose she u]), 

To the }>laee where he was lying', 
Antl when slu* drew the enrtain by, 
"Young man, I think you're dying. ^' 

4. '' () it 's 1 'm siek, and V(MT, V(mt siek. 
And 'tis a' for Barbara Allan : " 
"O the better for me ye 's never be, 
The your heart's bUnnl wimh» a spilling. 



POPUI.Ai: r.AIJ.ADS 25 

5. **() (liinia yo niiixl, youni;- innii," Haid slu\ 
"• Wluni y(^ was ill iJu^ lav(5rn a (Irinluii^, 
'Pliat y(^ iiiadci tlu^ hcallliH j;a(^ round ami round, 
And sli-liLcd lia,r[)a.i:i Allan?" 

(J. 11(1 luriid ills {':wv unto IIh' wall. 

And d(!aMi was willi liliii ih'alinu^ : 
" A<li(Mi, adieu, my dear I'licndH all, 
And bo kind lo Barbara Allan." 

7. And slowly, slowly raise slu^ up, 

And slowly, slowly left liini. 
And sit;liinij^ said, she eoud not slay, 
Since deaili of lile had i<^fl, him. 

8. She had nol, «;ane a mile but fwa.. 

When she he.ir<l IIk'; dead-bell rin^in<j^. 
And every j<>w that (he di^ad-lxdl j;eid, 
It eryM, Woe t<> Karbara Allan! 

9. '' ( ) mother, m(>ther, malie my bed! 

() inak(5 it saft and narrow! 
Siiiee my love <lied for luv to-day, 
1 'II die for him to-morrow/' 



LAMKIN 

1. It's Lamkin was a. mason <j;o()d 
as ever built wi staiu; ; 
He built Lord We.ario's (rastlo, 
but payment i;<)t he naim. 



26 I»()IMII.AH HALLADS 

2. " () pay me, Lord Wearie, 
come, ]):iy iiic^ my ftui:" 
'' I (^nnna pay you, Lauikin, 
for I niaun gau^ ocr tho sea." 

15. '-'•() pay nw now, liord Wearie, 
coiiK^ pay uiv onto luintl :" 
"J (^aiiiia pay you, Laiukin, 
uiilosa 1 sell luy land." 

4. *' () ^iu y(^ wlnua ])ay nie, 

I lit'rc Hall inak a vow, 
Before that ye cionie lianu^ again, 
ye sail liac trause to rue." 

5. Lord Wearie };()t a honny ship, 

to sail the saut sea faeni ; 
Bad(> his lady weel tlu^ easth^ kee[), 
ay till he should eoine hanie. 

(). lint tlu^ nouriet^ was a I'ause linuner 
as eer huni»- on a tree ; 
She lai<l a ])lot wi Landvin, 

whan her lord was oer the sea. 

7. She laid a plot wi Landvin, 

when the servants were awa, 
Loot him in at a little shot-window, 
and bi()Ui;ht him to the ha. 

8. "() M'hare 's a' the men o this house, 

that ea nie Landvin ? " 
" They 're at the barn-well thrashln*:^; 
't will be lang ere (hey come In." 



POPULAR BALLADS 27 

9. " And wli:ii<5 \s i\u' woiiKiii () this house, 
that (;:i nw, Lanikiu ?" 
" They 'rc^ at the; far wcdl wasliing ; 
't will he lan^- ero they conio in." 

10. " And whare 's the bairns o tliis house, 

that ea nie Lanikin ? " 
" I'lu^y 're at the sehool readin,<»- ; 

't will be ni^ht or they eonie Iiamc." 

11. '' O whare 's the hidy o this house, 

that ea's me Landtin ? " 
" She 's up in her bower sewing-, 

but w(^ Hoon w(^ (ran bring Iier down." 

12. Th(Mi Landiin's tane a sharp knife, 

that hang down by his gaire. 
And he has gi(Mi t\u\ bonny babe 
a (liM^j) wound and a sair. 

13. Then Lanikin he rocked, 

and the fause nourice sang. 
Till frae ilkae bon^ o tlie cradle 
the; red blood out sj)rang. 

14. Then out it si)ak the lady, 

as she stood on the stair : 
" What ails my bairn, nourice, 
that he 's greciting sac; sair? 

15. () still my bairn nourice, 

O still him with the pap ! " 
" He winna still, lady, 
for this nor for that." 



28 POPULAR BALLADS 

16. " O still my bairn, nourice, 

O still him wi the wand ! " 
" He winna still, lady, 
for a' his father's land." 

17. " O still my bairn, nourice, 

O still him wi the bell ! " 
" He winna still, lady, 

till ye 'come down yoursel." 

18. O the firsten step she steppit, 

she steppit on a stane ; 
But the neisten step she steppit, 
she met him Lamkin. 

19. "O mercy, mercy, Lamkin, 

^ hae mercy upon me ! 
Though you 've taen my young son's life, 
ye may let mysel be." 

20. '' O sail I kill her, nourice, 

or sail I lat her be?" 
" O kill her, kill her, Lamkin, 
for she neer was good to me." 

21. "O scour the bason, nourice, 

and mak it fair and clean. 
For to keep this lady's heart's blood, 
for she 's come o noble kin." 

22. " There need nae bason, Lamkin, 

lat it run through the floor ; 

What better is the heart's blood 

o the rich than o the poor ? " 



POPULAR BALLADS 29 

23. But ere three months were at an end, 

Lord Wearie came agam ; 

But dowie, dowie was his heart 

when first he came hame. 

24. " O wha's blood is this," he says, 

" that lies in the chamer? " 

" It is your lady's heart's blood ; 

't is as clear as the lamer." 

25. " And wha's blood is this," he says, 

" that lies in my ha ? " 
" It is your young son's heart's blood ; 
't is the clearest ava." 

26. O sweetly sang the black-bird 

that sat upon the tree ; 
But sairer grat Lamkin, 

when he was condemnd to die. 

27. And bonny sang the mavis, 

out o the thorny brake ; 
But sairer grat the nourice, 

when she was tied to the stake. 



YOUNG WATERS 

About Yule, when the wind blew cule, 
And the round tables began, 

A there is cum to our king's court 
Mony a well-favord man. 



30 POPULAR BALLADS 

2. The queen luikfc owre the castle-wa, 

Beheld baith dale and down, 
And there she saw Young Waters 
Cum riding to the town. 

3. His footmen they did rin before, 

His horsemen rade behind ; 

And mantel of the burning gowd 

Did keip him frae the wind. 

4. Gowden-graithd his horse before, 

And siller-shod behind ; 
The horse Young Waters rade upon 
Was fleeter than the wind. 

5. Out then spack a wylie lord. 

Unto the queen said he, 
" O tell me wlia 's the fairest face 
Rides in the company ? '* 

6. "I 've sene lord, and I Ve sene laird, 

And knights of high degree, 
Bot a fairer face than Young Waters 
Mine eyne did never see." 

7. Out then spack the jealous king. 

And an angry man was he : 
" O if he had bin twice as fair. 
You micht have excepted me." 

8. " You 're neither laird nor lord," she says, 

" Bot the king that wears the crown ; 
There is not a knight in fair Scotland 
But to thee maun bow down." 



POPULAR BALLADS 31 

9. For a' that she coud do or say, 
Appeas'd he wad nae bee, 
Bot for the words which she had said, 
Young Waters he maun die. 

10. They hae taen Young Waters, 

And put fetters to his feet ; 
They hae taen Young Waters, 

And thrown him in dungeon deep. 

11. " Aft I have ridden thro Stirling town 

In the wind bot and the weit ; 
But I neir rade thro Stirling town 
Wi fetters at my feet. 

12. " Aft I have ridden thro Stirling town 

In the wind bot and the rain ; 
Bot I neir rade thro Stirling town 
Neir to return again." 

13. They hae taen to the heiding-hill 

His young son in his craddle. 
And they hae taen to the heiding-hill 
His horse bot and his saddle. 

14. They hae taen to the heiding-hill 

His lady fair to see. 
And for the words the queen had spoke 
Young Waters he did die. 



32 POPULAR BALLADS 

THE GAY GOSS-HAWK 

1. " O WELL 's me o my gay goss-liawk, 

That he can speak and flee ; 
He '11 carry a letter to my love, 
Bring back another to me." 

2. " O how can I your true-love ken, 

Or how can I her know? 
Whan f rae her mouth I never heard couth, 
Nor wi my eyes her saw." 

3. " O well sal ye my true-love ken, 

As soon as you her see ; 
For, of a- the flowrs in fair Englan, 
The fairest flowr is she. 

4. " At even at my love's bowr-door 

There grows a bowing birk, 
An sit ye down and sing thereon, 
As she gangs to the kirk. 

5. " An four-and-twenty ladies fair 

Will wash and go to kirk, 
But well shall ye my true-love ken. 
For she wears goud on her skirt. 

6. " An four and twenty gay ladies 

Will to the mass repair. 
But well sal ye my true-love ken, 
For she wears goud on her hair." 



POPULAR BALLADS " 33 

7. O even at that lady's bowr-door 

There grows a bo win birk, 
An he set down and sang thereon, 
As she ged to the kirk. 

8. " O eet and drink, my marys a'. 

The wine flows you among, 
Till I gang to my shot-window, 
An hear yon bonny bird's song. 

9. " Sing on, sing on, my bonny bird, 

The song ye sang the streen. 
For I ken by your sweet singin 
You 're frae my true-love sen." 

10. O first he sang a merry song, 

An then he sang a grave. 
An then he peckd his feathers gray, 
To her the letter gave. 

11. " Ha, there 's a letter frae your love, 

He says he sent you three ; 

He canna wait your love langer. 

But for your sake he '11 die. 

12. "He bids you write a letter to him ; 

He says he 's sent you five ; 
He canno wait your love langer, 

Tho you 're the fairest woman alive." 

13. "Ye bid him bake his bridal-bread. 

And brew his bridal-ale, 
An I '11 meet him in fair Scotlan 
Lang, lang or it be stale." 



34 POPULAR BALLADS 

14. She's (loon her to liov fiitlior dear, 

F'dii low down on her knee : 

** A boon, a boon, my father dear, 

I pray you, grant it me." 

15. ^' Ask on, ask on, my daughter, 

An granted it sal be ; 
Exee})t ae squire in fair Scotlan, 
An him you sail never see." 

IG. "*' The only boon, my father dear. 
That 1 do crave of the, 
Is, gin I die in southin lands, 
In Scotland to bury me. 

17. "An the lirstin kirk that ye come till. 

Ye gar the bells be rung. 
An the nextin kirk that ye come till, 
Ye gar the mess be sung. 

18. ^' iVu the thirdin kirk that ye come till, 

You deal gold for my sake. 
An the fourthin kirk that ye come till, 
You tarry there till night." 

19. She is doeu her to her bigly bowr, 

As fast as she coud fare. 
All she has tane a sleepy draught, 
Tliat she had mixed wi care. 

20. She 's laid her down upon her bed, 

All soon she 's fa'ii aslee]>. 
Anil soon oer every tender limb 
Cauld death began to creep. 



POPULAR liALLADS .'^5 

21. WliJUi nl^hi, was llovvn, jiii day wjis come, 

N:u) ;ui(! i\\;ii did Ji(>r see 
But lJj()ii<;lit slit; was as surely d(!ad 
As ony Jady coud l)o. 

22. Ilor fath(!r an hov hrotlicrs dear 

(Jard inak(; to her a h'w.v ; 
The tae half was o guide red gold, 
TIk; tither o silver elear. 

23. Her inither aji her sisters fair 

(lard work for her a sark ; 
Th(^ ta(; half was o (^a»rd)riek fine, 
The tither o needle wark. 

24. The firstin kiik that they (^anie till, 

Tluiy gard tlie hells lu; I'ung, 
An the nextin kirk that they came till, 
They gard tlie mess he siuig. 

25. Th(! thirdln kirk that tlu^y ('ame till. 

They ih^alt gold for her sake, 
An the fourtliin kirk that they came till, 
Lo, there th(;y met her make ! 

26. " Lay down, hiy <h)wii the higly bier. 

Lat me the dead look on ; " 
Wi cheery cheeks and ruby lips 
Slu; lay an smiTd on him. 

27. " O ae sheave o your bread, true-love, 

1^1 ae glass o your wine. 

For I ha(^ fast(Hl for your sake 

These fully days is nine. 



36 POPULAR BALLADS 

28. " Gang hame, gang hame, my seven bold 
brothers, 
Gang hame and sound your horn; 
An ye may boast in southin lans 
Your sister 's playd you scorn." 



THE THREE RAVENS 

1. There were three rauens sat on a tree, 

Downe a dovvne, hay down, hay downe 
There were three rauens sat on a tree. 

With a downe 
There were three rauens sat on a tree, 
They were as blacke as they might be. 

With a downe derrie, derrie, derrie, downe, downe. 

2. The one of them said to his mate, 

" Where shall we our breakefast take ? " 

3. " Downe in yonder greene field. 

There lies a knight slain vnder his shield. 

4. " His hounds they lie downe at his feete. 
So well they can their master keepe. 

5. " His haukes they flie so eagerly, 
There 's no fowle dare him come nie." 

6. Downe there comes a fallow doe, 

As great with yong as she might goe. 

7. She lift vp liis bloudy hed, 

And kist his wounds that were so red. 



POPULAR BALLADS 37 

8. She got him yp vpon her backe, 
And carried him to earthen lake. 

9. She buried him before the prime, 

She was dead herselfe ere euen-song time. 

10. God send euery gentleman, 

Such haukes, such hounds, and such a leman. 



THE TWA CORBIES 

1. As I was walking all alane, 

I heard twa corbies making a mane ; 

The tane unto the t' other say, 

" Where sail we gang and dine to-day?" 

2. " In behint yon auld fail dyke, 

I wot there lies a new slain knight ; 
And naebody kens that he lies there, 
But his hawk, his hound, and lady fair. 

3. " His hound is to the hunting gane. 
His hawk to fetch the wild-fowl hame. 
His lady 's ta'en another mate. 

So we may mak our dinner sweet. 

4. " Ye '11 sit on his white hause-bane. 
And I '11 pike out his bonny blue een ; 
Wi ae lock o his gowden hair 

We '11 theek our nest when it grows bare. 



38 POPULAR BALLADS 

5. " Mony a one for him makes mane. 
But nane sail ken where he is gane ; 
Oer his white banes when they are bare, 
The wind sail blaw for cvermair.*' 



SIR PATRICK SPENCE 

1. The king sits in Dumferling touiie. 
Drinking the bliide-reicl wine : 
*^ O whar will I got guld sailor. 
To sail this schip of mine ? " 



2. Up and spak an eldern knieht, 

Sat at the kings rieht kne : 
" Sir Patrick Sponce is the best sailor 
That sails upon the se." 

3. The king has written a braid letter. 

And signd it wi his hand. 
And sent it to Sir Patrick Spenee, 
AVas walking on the sand. 

4. The first line that Sir Patrick red, 

A loud laueh lauehed he ; 
The next lino that Sir Patrick red. 
The teir blinded his ee. 

5. ''O wha is this has don tliis doid. 

This ill deid don to mo. 
To send me out this time o' the yeir. 
To sail upon the so ! 



I'OlMILAir liAI.IwVDS 

(). '•'• Mnlv li.isl, m:ik luistr, my min y hkm nil, 
()m'<;irKl sclii|) sails I Ik; iiioiik^:" 
*^() s:iy na s:u', my m:is(,(U- dclr, 
h\u- I fi'li" :i (li'juUic! sl.oiinc. 

7. '' L.ilo !a,l,(^ y<'s(,i<M'ii I s.ivv lln^ lU'W mooiic, 

VV i (li<^ .'iiiM iiKxMM^ ill iur .'iniic. 
And I I'cir, 1 IVir, my dcir master, 
riiai vv(^ will cum lo liarmc" 

8. () our Scots Molih'S vvcr liclit laitli 

To \v<'ct tlicir cork-licild scIiooik^ ; 
Kot laiii;' o\vi-(^ :i' tln^ p'-'.V ^^'''" |>l«iyd, 
Tliair liais tlicy swam aljooiio. 

1). () laiijj;", laiijj;' Miay tlicir la(li<'S sit, 
Wi lliaii- fans iiit<> tlu'ir hand, 
OiMMi" tlicy Hr. Sir l*atrick Spciuu? 
('iim sailing;' to tlu^ land. 

10. () l.'ii^-, laii;;' may tli(^ la(li(^s stand, 
VVi tliair ^<>ld Ucms in tlicir hair, 
W aitiiii;' lor tlia.ir aiii dcir lords, 
h\)V tlicy 11 sc tliaiiic iia mair. 



'M) 



11. Ilal (jwrc, lial owi'<' to Ahcidoiir, 
It \s lil'tics I'adoin dcip. 
And thair lies ^iiid Sir l*atri(tU Sjkuk^o, 
VVi tli(5 Scots lords at his ftsit. 



40 POPULAR BALLADS 

THOMAS RYMER AND THE QUEEN OF 
ELFLAND 

1. True Thomas lay oer yond grassy bank, 

And he beheld a ladie gay, 
A ladie that was brisk and bold, 
Come riding oer the fernie brae. 

2. Her skirt was of the grass-green silk, 

Her mantel of the velvet fine, 
At ilka tett of her horse's mane 
Hung fifty silver bells and nine. 

3. True Thomas he took off his hat. 

And bowed him low down till his knee : 
" All hail, thou mighty Queen of Heaven ! 
For your peer on earth I never did see." 

4. "O no, O no, True Thomas," she says, 

" That name does not belong to me ; 
I am but the queen of fair Elfland, 
And I 'm come here for to visit thee. 

5. " But ye maun go wi me now, Thomas, 

True Thomas, ye maun go wi me. 
For ye maun serve me seven years. 

Thro weel or wae as may chance to be." 

6. She turned about her milk-white steed, 

And took True Thomas up behind. 
And aye wheneer her bridle rang. 

The steed flew swifter than the wind. 



POPULAR BALLADS 41 

7. For forty days and forty nights 

He wade thro red blude to the knee, 
And he saw neither sun nor moon, 
But heard the roaring of the sea. 

8. O they rade on, and further on. 

Until they came to a garden green : 
'' Light down, light down, ye ladie free, 
Some of that fruit let me pull to thee." 

9. *' O no, O no. True Thomas," she says, 

" That fruit maun not be touched by thee, 
For a' the plagues that are in hell 
Lio-ht on the fruit of this countrie. 

10. " But I have a loaf here in my lap. 

Likewise a bottle of claret wine. 
And now ere we go farther on, 

We '11 rest a while, and ye may dine." 

11. When he had eaten and drunk his fill, 

" Lay down your head upon my knee," 
The lady sayd, " ere we climb yon hill. 
And I will show you fairlies three. 

12. » O see not ye yon narrow road. 

So thick beset wi thorns and briers? 
That is the path of righteousness, 
Tho after it but few enquires. 

13. " And see not ye that braid braid road, 

That lies across yon lillie leven ? 
That is the path of wickedness, 

Tho some call it the road to heaven. 



42 POPULAR BALLADS 

14. *' And see not ye that bonnie road, 

Which winds about the fernie brae? 
That is the road to fair Elfland, 

Whe[re] you and I this night maun gae. 

15. " But Thomas, ye maun hold your tongue, 

Whatever you may hear or see, 
For gin ae word you should chance to speak. 
You will neer get back to your ain countrie.' 

16. He has gotten a coat of the even cloth, 

And a pair of shoes of velvet green. 
And till seven years were past and gone 
True Thomas on earth was never seen. 



THE WEE WEE MAN 

1. As I was wa'king all alone. 

Between a water and a wa. 
And there I spy'd a wee wee man. 
And he was the least that ere I saw, 

2. His legs were scarce a shathmont's length, 

And thick and thimber was his thigh; 
Between his brows there was a span, 

And between his shoulders there was three. 

3. He took up a meikle stane. 

And he flang 't as far as I could see ; 
Though I had been a Wallace wight, 
I couldna liften 't to my knee. 



POPULAR BALLADS 43 

4. '^ O wee wee man, but thou be Strang ! 

O tell me where thy dwelling be ? " 
" My dwelling 's down at yon bonny bower ; 
O will you go with me and see ? " 

5. On we lap, and awa we rade, 

Till we came to yon bonny green ; 
We lighted down for to bait our horse, 
And out there came a lady fine. 

6. Four and twenty at her back, 

And they were a' clad out in green ; 
Though the King of Scotland had been there, 
The warst o them might hae been his queen. 

7. On we lap, and awa we rade. 

Till we came to yon bonny ha, 
Whare the roof was o the beaten gould, 
And the floor was o the cristal a'. 

8. When we came to the stair-foot, 

Ladies were dancing, jimp and sraa, 
But in the twinkling of an eye. 
My wee wee man was clean awa. 



SWEET WILLIAM'S GHOST 

Whan bells war rung, an mass was sung, 
A wat a' man to bed were gone, 

Clark Sanders came to Margret's window, 
With mony a sad sigh and groan. 



44 POPULAR BALLADS 

2. "• Are ye sleeping, Margret,'' lie says, 

" Or are ye waking, presentlie ? 
Give lue my faith and trouthe again, 
A wat, trew-love, I gied to thee." 

3. " Your faith and trouth ye 's never get. 

Nor our trew love shall never twain. 
Till ye come with me in my bower, 
And kiss me both cheek and chin." 

4. " My mouth it is full cold, Margret, 

It has the smell now of the ground ; 
And if I kiss thy comely mouth. 
Thy life-days will not be long. 

5. " Cocks are crowing a merry mid-larf, 

I wat the wild f ule boded day ; 
Gie me my faith and trouthe again, 
And let me fare me on my way." 

6. " Thy faith and trouth thou shall na geti. 

Nor our trew love shall never twin. 
Till ye tell me what comes of women 
A wat that dy's in strong travelling." 

7. " Their beds are made in the heavens high, 

Down at the foot of our good Lord's knee, 
Well set about \yi gilly-flowers, 
A wat sweet company for to see. 

8. *' O cocks are crowing a merry midd-larf, 

A wat the wilde foide boded day ; 
The salms of Heaven will be sung. 
And ere now I 'le be misst away." 



POPULAR BALLADS 45 

9. Up she has tarn a bright long wand, 

And she has straked her trouth thereon ; 
She has given (it) him out at the shot-window, 
Wi many a sad sigh and heavy groan. 

10. " I thank you, Margret, I thank you, Margret, 

And I thank you hartilie ; 
Gine ever the dead come for the quick, 

Be sure, Margret, I '11 come again for thee." 

11. It 's hose an shoon an gound alane 

She clame the wall and followed him, 
Untill she came to a green forest, 
On this she lost the sight of him. 

12. " Is their any room at your head, Sanders? 

Is their any room at your feet? 
Or any room at your twa sides ? 
Whare fain, fain woud I sleep." 

13. " Their is na room at my head, Margret, 

Their is na room at my feet ; 
There is room at my twa sides. 
For ladys for to sleep. 

14. " Cold meal is my covering owre, 

But an my winding sheet ; 
My bed it is full low, I say, 

Down among the hongerey worms I sleep. 

15. " Cold meal is my covering owre, 

But an my winding sheet ; 
The dew it falls na sooner down 
Then ay it is full weet." 



46 POPULAR HALLADS 

THE WIFE OF U811ERVS WELL 

1. There livo.l a wife at Usher's AVoll, 

And a wealthy Nvife wns she; 
She had three stout and stalwart sons, 
And sent them oer the sea. 

2. They hadna heen a week from her, 

A week bnt barely ane. 
Whan word came to the carline wife 
That her three sons were <i;ane. 

3. They hadna been a week from her, 

A week but barely three, 
AVhan word caine to the carlin wife 
That her sons she \\ never see. 

4. " I wish the wind may never eease. 

Nor fashes in the flood. 
Till my three sons eome hanie to me, 
In eai'thly Hesli and blood." 

5. It fell about the ^Nlartinmass, 

When nii>'hts are lang and mirk, 
The carlin wife's three sons eame hame, 
And their hats were o the birk. 

(). It neither grew in syke nor ditch. 
Nor yet in ony sheugh ; 
But at the gates o Paradise, 
That birk urew fair eneuirh. 



rOPULAll HALLADS 47 

7. " Blow II]) tlu^ iiro, my maicUms, 

Hiin<;- water fioni the w«'ll ; 
For II my lious(; shall least this night, 
Since my three sons are well." 

8. And she has ma<le to them a bed, 

She 's madi^ it large and widi^. 
And sh(5 's taen \wr mantle her about, 
Sat down at the IxHl-siih;. 



9. Up then crew the nul, red cock. 
And np and erew the gray ; 
The eldest to the youngest sjdd, 
" 'T is time we were away." 

10. Tlu^ cock he ha(bia crawd but once, 

And chi])pd his wings at a\ 
When the youngest to tlui eldest said, 
" I^rother, we nuist awa. 

11. '' The cock doth craw, the day doth daw, 

The channerin worm dotli chide ; 
Gin we bi^ mist out o our place, 
A sair pain we maun bide. 

12. '^ Faer y(i weel, my mother dear! 

Farc5W(Hd to barn and byre ! 
And fare ye weel, the bonny lass 
That kindkis my mother's fire I " 



48 POPULAR BALLADS 



KEMP OWYNE 

1. Her mother died when she was young, 

Which gave her cause to make great moan; 
Her father married the warst woman 
That ever lived in Christendom. 

2. She served her with foot and hand, 

In every thing that she could dee, 
Till once, in an unlucky time. 

She threw her in ower Craigy's sea. 

3. Says, " Lie you there, dove Isabel, 

And all my sorrows lie with thee ; 
Till Kemp Owyne come ower the sea, 

And borrow you with kisses three. 
Let all the warld do what they will, 

Oh borrowed shall you never be ! " 

4. Her breath grew Strang, her hair grew lang, 

And twisted thrice about the tree. 
And all the people, far and near, 

Thought that a savage beast was she. 

5. These news did come to Kemp Owyne, 

Where he lived, far beyond the sea ; 
He hasted him to Craigy's sea, 

And on the savage beast lookd he. 

6. Her breath was Strang, her hair was lang, 

And twisted was about the tree. 
And with a swing she came about : 

" Come to Craigy's sea, and kiss with me. 



POPULAR BALLADS 49 

7. " Here is a royal belt," she cried, 

"• That I have found in the green sea ; 
And while your body it is on, 

Drawn shall your blood never be ; 
But if you touch me, tail or fin, 

I vow my belt your death shall be." 

8. lie stepped in, gave her a kiss. 

The royal belt he brought him wi ; 
Her breath was Strang, her hair was lang. 

And twisted twice about the tree. 
And with a swing she came al)out : 

" Come to Craigy's sea, and kiss with me. 

9. " Here is a royal ring," slie said, 

" That I have found in the green sea ; 
And while your finger it is on. 

Drawn shall your blood never be ; 
But if you touch me, tail or fin, 

I swear my ring your death shall be." 

10. He stepped in, gave her a kiss, 

The royal ring he brought him wi ; 
Her breath was Strang, her hair was lang. 

And twisted ance about the tree. 
And with a swing she came about : 

" Come to Craigy's sea, and kiss with me. 

11. " Here is a royal brand," she said, 

" That I have found in the green sea ; 
And while your body it is on, 

Drawn shall your blood never be ; 
But if you touch me, tail or fin, 

I swear my brand your death shall be." 



50 POPULAR BALLADS 

12. He stepped in, gave her a kiss, 

The royal brand he brought him wi ; 

Her breath was sweet, her hair grew short, 
And twisted nane about the tree, 

And smilingly she came about, 
As fair a woman as fair could be. 



THE DAEMON LOVER 

1. " O WHEKE have you been, my long, long love, 

This long seven years and mair ? " 
"01 'm come to seek my former vows 
Ye granted me before." 

2. " O hold your tongue of your former vows, 

For they will breed sad strife ; 

hold your tongue of your former vows, 
For I am become a wife." 

3. He turned him right and round about, 

And the tear blinded his ee : 
" I wad never liae trodden on Irish ground, 
If it had not been for thee. 

4. " I might hae had a king's daughter, 

Far, far beyond the sea ; 

1 might have had a king's daughter. 

Had it not been for love o thee." 

5. "If ye might have had a king's daughter, 

Yersel ye had to blame ; 
Ye might have had taken the king's daughter. 
For ve kend that I was nane. 



POPULAR BALLADS 51 

6. " If I was to leave my husband dear, 

And my two babes also, 

what have you to take me to, 
If with you I should go ? " 

7. " I hae seven ships upon the sea — 

The eighth brought me to land — 
With four-and-twenty bold mariners, 
And music on every hand." 

8. She has taken up her two little babes, 

Kissd them baith cheek and chin : 
" O fair ye weel, ray ain two babes. 
For I '11 never see you again." 

9. She set her foot upon the ship, 

No mariners could she behold ; 
But the sails were o the taffetie. 
And the masts o the beaten gold. 

10. She had not sailed a league, a league, 

A league but barely three. 
When dismal grew his countenance, 
And drumlie grew his ee. 

11. They had not saild a league, a league, 

A league but barely three. 
Until she espied his cloven foot, 
And she wept right bitterlie. 

12. '*0 hold your tongue of your weeping," says he, 

" Of your weeping now let me be ; 

1 will shew you how the lilies grow 

On the banks of Italy." 



52 POPULAR BALLADS 

13. " O what hills are yon, yon pleasant hills, 

That the sun shines sweetly on ? " 
" O yon are the hills of heaven," he said, 
" Where you will never win." 

14. " O whaten a mountain is yon," she said, 

" All so dreary wi frost and snow ? " 
" O yon is the mountain of hell," he cried, 
" Where you and I will go." 

15. He strack the tap-mast wi his hand. 

The fore-mast wi his knee, 
And he brake that gallant ship in twain, 
And sank her in the sea. 



HUGH OF LINCOLN 

1. Four and twenty bonny boys 

Were playing at the ba. 
And by it came him sweet Sir Hugh, 
And he playd oer them a\ 

2. He kicked the ba with his right foot. 

And catchd it wi his knee. 
And throuch-and-thro the Jew's window 
He gard the bonny ba flee. 

3. He 's doen him to the Jew's castell. 

And walkd it round about ; 
And there he saw the Jew's daughter, 
At the window looking out. 



POPULAR BALLADS 53 

4. *' Throw down the ba, ye Jew's daughter, 

Throw down the ba to me!" 
" Never a bit," says the Jew's daughter, 
" Till up to me come ye." 

5. " How will I come up? How can I come up ? 

How can I come to thee ? 
For as ye did to my auld father. 
The same ye '11 do me." 

6. She 's gane till her father's garden, 

And pu'd an apple red and green ; 
'T was a' to wyle him sweet Sir Hugh, 
And to entice him in. 

7. She 's led him in through ae dark door, 

And sae has she thro nine ; 
She 's laid him on a dressing-table. 
And stickit him like a swine. 

8. And first came out the thick, thick blood. 

And syne came out the thin, 
And syne came out the bonny heart's blood ; 
There was nae mair within. 

9. She 's rowd him in a cake o lead. 

Bade him lie still and sleep ; 
She 's thrown him in Our Lady's draw-well. 
Was fifty fathom deep. 

10. When bells were rung, and mass was sung. 
And a' the bairns came hame. 
When every lady gat hame her son. 
The Lady Maisry gat nane. 



54 POPULAR BALLADS 

11. She *s taen her mantle her about, 
Her coffer by the hand, 
And she *s gane out to seek her son. 
And wanderd oer the land. 



12. She's doen her to the Jew's castell, 

Where a' were fast asleep : 
" Gin ye be there, my sweet Sir Hugh, 
I pray you to me speak." 

13. She 's doen her to the Jew's garden, 

Thought he had been gathering fruit: 
" Gin ye be there, my sweet Sir Hugh, 
I pray you to me speak." 

14. She neard Our Lady's deep draw-well. 

Was fifty fathom deep : 
" Whareer ye be, my sweet Sir Hugh, 
I pray you to me speak." 

15. " Gae hame, gae hame, my mither dear. 

Prepare my winding sheet. 
And at the back o merry Lincoln 
The morn I will you meet." 

16. Now Lady Maisry is gane hame. 

Made him a winding sheet, 
And at the back o merry Lincoln 
The dead corpse did her meet. 

17. And a' the bells o merry Lincoln 

Without men's hands were rung. 



POPULAR BALLADS 55 

And a' the books o merry Lincoln 
Were read without man's tongue, 

And neer was such a burial 
Sin Adam's days begun. 



YOUNG BICHAM 

1. In London city was Bicham born, 

He longd strange countries for to see, 
But he was taen by a savage Moor, 
Who handld him right cruely. 

2. For thro his shoulder he put a bore. 

An thro the bore has pitten a tree, 
An he 's gard him draw the carts o wine. 
Where horse and oxen had wont to be. 

3. He 's casten [him] in a dungeon deep. 

Where he coud neither hear nor see ; 
He 's shut him up in a prison strong, 
An he 's handld him right cruely. 

4. O this Moor he had but ae daughter, 

1 wot her name was Shusy Pye ; 
She 's doen her to the prison-house, 

And she 's calld Young Bicham one word by. 

5. " O hae ye ony lands or rents, 

Or citys in your ain country, 
Coud free you out of prison strong. 
An coud mantain a lady free ? " 



56 POPULAR BALLADS 

6. " O London city is my own, 

An other citys twa or three 
Coud loose me out o prison strong, 
An coud mantain a lady free." 

7. O she has bribed her father's men 

Wi meikle goud and white money, 

She 's gotten the key o the prison doors. 

An she has set Young Bicham free. 

8. She 's gi'n him a loaf o good white bread, 

But an a flask o Spanish wine, 
An she bad him mind on the ladle's love 
That sae kindly freed him out o pine. 

9. " Go set your foot on good ship-board. 

An haste you back to your ain country. 
An before that seven years has an end. 
Come back again, love, and marry me." 

10. It was long or seven years had an end 

She longd fu sair her love to see ; 
She 's set her foot on good ship-board, 
An turnd her back on her ain country. 

11. She 's saild up, so has she doun. 

Till she came to the other side ; 
She 's landed at Young Bicham's gates. 
An I hop this day she sal be his bride. 

12. " Is this Young Bicham's gates ? " says she, 

" Or is that noble prince within ? " 

" He 's up the stairs wi his bonny bride. 

An monny a lord and lady wi him." 



POPULAR BALLADS 57 

13. '' O has he taen a bonny bride, 

An has he clean forgotten me ! " 
An sighing said that gay lady, 

" I wish I were in my ain country ! " 

14. But she 's pitten her han in her pocket, 

An gin the porter guineas three ; 
Says, " Take ye that, ye proud porter, 
An bid the bridegroom speak to me.'* 

15. O whan the porter came up the stair. 

He 's fa'n low down upon his knee : 
" Won up, won up, ye proud porter, 
An what makes a' this courtesy ? " 

16. "01 've been porter at your gates 

This mair nor seven years an three, 
But there is a lady at them now 
The like of whom I never did see. 

17. " For on every finger she has a ring, 

An on the mid-finger she has three, 
An there 's as meikle goud abo.on her brow 
As woud buy an earldome o Ian to me." 

18. Then up it started Young Bicham, 

An sware so loud by Our Lady, 
" It can be nane but Shusy Pye, 
That has come oer the sea to me." 

19. O quickly ran he down the stair, 

O fifteen steps he has made but three ; 
He 's tane his bonny love in his arms. 
An a wot he kissd her tenderly. 



58 POPULAR BALLADS 

20. '* O hae you tane a bonny bride ? 

An hae you quite forsaken me ? 
An hae ye quite forgotten her 
That gae you life an liberty ? " 

21. She 's lookit oer her left shoulder 

To hide the tears stood in her ee ; 
••' Now fare thee well, Young Bicham," she 
says, 
" I '11 strive to tliink nae mair on thee." 

22. " Take back your daughter, madam," he says, 

'' An a double dowry I '11 gi her wi ; 
For I maun marry my first true love, 

That 's done and suffered so much for me." 

23. He's take his bonny love by the han. 

And led her to yon fountain stane ; 
He 's changd her name f rae Shusy Pye, 

An he 's cald her his bonny love, Lady Jane. 



GET UP AND BAR THE DOOR 

1. It fell about the Martinmas time. 

And a gay time it was then. 
When our good wife got puddings to make, 
And she 's boild them in the pan. 

2. The wind sae cauld blew south and north, 

And blew into the floor ; 
Quoth our good man to our good wife, 
" Gae out and bar the door." 



POPULAR BALLADS 59 

3. " My hand is in my hussyfskap, 

Goodman, as ye may see ; 
An it shoud nae be barrd this hundred year, 
It 's no be barrd for me." 

4. They made a paction tween them twa, 

They made it firm and sure, 
That the first word whaeer shoud speak, 
Shoud rise and bar the door. 

5. Then by there came two gentlemen. 

At twelve o'clock at night, 
And they could neither see house nor hall, 
Nor coal nor candle-light. 

6. " Now whether is this a rich man's house, 

Or whether is it a poor ? " 
But neer a word wad ane o them speak, 
For barring of the door. 

7. And first they ate the white puddings. 

And then they ate the black ; 
Tho muckle thought the goodwife to hersel, 
Yet neer a word she spake. 

8. Then said the one unto the other, . 

" Here, man, tak ye my knife ; 
Do ye tak aff the auld man's beard, 
And I '11 kiss the goodwife." 

9. " But there 's nae water in the house, 

And what shall we do than ? " 
" What ails thee at the pudding-broo. 
That boils into the pan ? " 



60 POPULAR BALLADS 

10. O up then started our goodman, 

An angry man was he : 
" Will ye kiss my wife before my een, 
And scad me wi pudding-bree ? " 

11. Then up and started our good wife, 

Gied three skips on the floor : 
" Goodman, you 've spoken the foremost word, 
Get up and bar the door." 



THE BATTLE OF OTTERBURN 

1. It fell about the Lammus time, 

When the muir-men won their hay, 
That the doughty Earl Douglas went 
Into England to catch a prey. 

2. He chose the Gordons and the Graemes, 

With the Lindsays light and gay ; 
But the elardines wadna wi him ride, 
And they rued it to this day. 

3. And he has burnt the dales o Tine 

And part of Almonshire. 
And three good towers on Roxburgh fells 
Lie left them all on fire. 

4. Then he marched up to Newcastle, 

And rode it round about: 
" O whae 's the lord of this castle. 
Or whae's the lady o 't?" 



POPULAR BALLADS 61 

5. But up spake proud Lord Piercy then, 

And O but he spak hie ! 
" I am the lord of this castle, 
And my wife 's the lady gaye." 

6. "If you are lord of this castle, 

Sae weel it pleases me ; 
For ere I cross the border again 
The ane of us shall die." 

7. He took a lang speir in his hand, 

Was made of the metal free, 
And for to meet the Douglas then 
He rode most furiously. 

8. But O how pale his lady lookd, 

Frae off the castle wa, 
When down before the Scottish spear 
She saw brave Piercy fa ! 

9. How pale and wan his lacjy lookd, 

Frae off the castle hieght, 
When she beheld her Piertjy yield 
To Doughty Douglas' might ! 

10. " Had we twa been upon the green, 

And never an eye to see, 
I should have had ye flesh and fell ; 
But your sword shall gae wi me." 

11. " But gae you up to Otterburn, 

And there wait dayes three, 
And if I come not ere three days' end 
A fause lord ca ye me." 



62 POPULAR BALLADS 

12. " The Otterburn 's a bonny burn, 

'T is pleasant there to be, 
But there is naught at Otterburn 
To feed my men and me. 

13. " The deer rins wild owr hill and dale, 

The birds fly wild frae tree to tree, 
And there is neither bread nor kale 
To fend my men and me. 

14. " But I will stay at Otterburn, 

Where you shall welcome be ; 
And if ye come not at three days' end 
A coward I '11 ca thee." 

15. " Then gae your ways to Otterburn, 

And there wait dayes three ; 
And if 1 come not ere three days' end 
A coward ye's ca me." 

16. They lighted high on Otterburn, 

Upon the bent so brown, 
They lighted high on Otterburn, 
And threw their pallions down. 

17. And he that had a bonny boy 

Sent his horses to grass, 
And he that had not a bonny boy 
His ain servant he was. 

18. But up then spak a little page. 

Before the peep of the dawn ; 
" O waken ye, waken ye, my good lord. 
For Piercy 's hard at hand ! " 



POPULAR BALLADS 63 

19. " Ye lie, ye lie, ye loud liar, 

Sae loud I hear ye lie ! 
The Piercy hadna men yestreen 
To diglit my men and me. 

20. " But I have seen a dreary dream, 

Beyond the isle o Sky ; 
I saw a dead man won the fight, 
And I think that man was I." 

21. He belted on his good broad-sword 

And to the field he ran. 
Where he met wi the proud Piercy, 
And a' his goodly train. 

22. When Piercy wi the Douglas met, 

I wat he was right keen ; 
They swakked their swords till sair they swat, 
And the blood ran them between. 

23. But Piercy wi his good broad-sword. 

Was made o the metal free, 
Has wounded Douglas on the brow 
Till backward he did flee. 

24. Then he calld on his little page, 

And said, Run speedily. 
And bring my ain dear sister's son, 
Sir Hugh Montgomery. 

25. [Who, when he saw the Douglas bleed, 

His heart was wonder wae : 
" Now, by my sword, that haughty lord 
Shall rue before he gae." 



64 POPULAR BALLADS 

26. "My nephew bauld," the Douglas said, 

" What boots the death of ane ? 
Last night I dreamed a dreary dream, 
And I ken the day 's thy ain. 

27. " I dreamd I saw a battle fought 

Beyond the isle o Sky, 
When lo ! a dead man wan the field. 
And I thought that man was I. 

28. " My wound is deep, I fain wad sleep, 

Nae mair I '11 fighting see ; 

Gae lay me in the breaken bush 

That grows on yonder lee. 

29. *' But tell na ane of my brave men 

That I lye bleeding wan, 
But let the name of Douglas still 
Be shouted in the van. 

30. " And bury me here on this lee. 

Beneath the blooming briar. 
And never let a mortal ken 
A kindly Scot lyes here." 

31. He liftit up that noble lord, 

Wi the saut tear in his ee. 
And hid him in the breaken bush, 
On yonder lily lee. 

32. The moon was clear, the day drew near, 

The spears in flinters flew, 
But mony gallant Englishman 
Ere day the Scotsman slew. 



POPULAR BALLADS 65 

33. Sir Hugh Montgomery he rode 

Thro all the field in sight, 
And loud the name of Douglas still 
He urgd wi a' his might. 

34. The Gordons good, in English blood 

They steeped their hose and shoon, 
The Lindsays flew like fire about, 
Till a' the fray was doon.] 

35. When stout Sir Hugh wi Piercy met, 
I wat he was right fain ; 
They swakked their swords till sair they swat, 
And the blood ran down like rain, 

36. ''O yield thee, Piercy," said Sir Hugh, 

" O yield, or ye shall die ! " 
" Fain wad I yield," proud Piercy said, 
" But neer to loun like thee." 

37. " Thou shalt not yield to knave nor loun, 

Nor shalt thou yield to me ; 
But yield thee to the breaken bush 
That grows on yonder lee." 

38. "I will not yield to bush or brier. 

Nor will I yield to thee ; 
But I will yield to Lord Douglas, 
Or Sir Hugh Montgomery." 

39. [When Piercy knew it was Sir Hugh, 

He fell low on his knee, 
But soon he raisd him up again, 
Wi mickle courtesy.] 



66 POPULAR BALLADS 

40. He left not an Englishman on the field 

That he hadna either killd or taen 
Ere his heart's blood was cauld. 



CHEVY CHASE 

1. God prosper long our noble hlng, 

our liffes and saftyes all ! 
A woefuU hunting once there did 
in Cheuy Chase befall. 

2. To driue the deere with hound and home 

Erie Pearcy took the way : 
The child may rue that is vnborne 
the hunting of that day ! 

3. The stout Erie of Northumberland 

a vow to God did make 
His pleasure in the Scottish woods 
three sommers days to take, 

4. The cheefest harts in Cheuy C[h]ase 

to kill and beare away : 
These tydings to Erie Douglas came 
in Scottland, where he lay. 

5. Who sent Erie Pearcy present \/ord 

he would prevent his sport ; 
The English erle, not fearing that, 
did to the woods resort, 



POPULAR BALLADS 67 

6. With fifteen hundred bowmen hold, 

All chosen men of might, 
Who knew ffull well in time of neede 
to ayme their shafts arright. 

7. The gallant greyhound [s] swiftly ran 

to chase the fallow deere ; 
On Munday they began to hunt, 
ere daylight did appeare. 

8. And long before high noone the had 

a hundred fat buckes slaine ; 
Then hauing dined, the drouyers went 
to rouze the deare againe. 

9. The bowmen mustered on the hills, 

well able to endure ; 
Theire backsids all with speciall care 
that day were guarded sure. 

10. The hounds ran swiftly through the woods 

the nimble deere to take, 
That with their cryes the hills and dales 
an eccho shrill did make. 

11. Lord Pearcy to the querry went 

to veiw the tender deere ; 
Qi^oth he, " Erie Douglas promised once 
this day to meete me heere ; 

12. " But if I thought he wold not come, 

noe longer wold I stay." 
With that a braue younge gentlman 
thus to the erle did say : 



68 POPULAR BALLADS 

13. " Loe, yonder doth Erie Douglas come, 

hys men in armour bright; 
Full twenty hundred Scottish speres 
all marching in our sight. 

14. " All men of pleasant Tiuydale, 

fast by the riuer Tweede : " 
" O ceaze your sportts ! " Erie Pearcy said, 
'' and take jour bowes with speede. 

15. "And now with me, my countrymen, 

your courage forth advance ! 
For there was neuer champion yett, 
in Scottland nor in Ffrance, 

16. " That euer did on horsbacke come, 

[but], and if my hap it were, 
I durst encounter man for man, 
with him to break a spere." 

17. Erie Douglas on his milke-white steede, 

most like a baron bold, 
Rode for most of his company, 
whose armor shone like gold. 

18. " Shew me," sayd hee, " whose men you bee 

that hunt soe boldly heere, 
That without my consent doe chase 
and kill my fallow deere." 

19. The first man that did answer make 

was noble Pearcy hee. 
Who sayd, *' Wee list not to declare 
nor shew whose men wee bee ; 



POPULAR BALLADS 69 

20. " Yett wee will spend our deerest blood 

thy cheefest harts to slay." 
Then Douglas swore a solempne oathe, 
and thus in rage did say : 

21. " Ere thus I will outbraued bee, 

one of vs tow shall dye ; 
I know thee well, an erle thou art ; 
Lord Pearcy, soe am L 

22. " But trust me, Pearcye, pittye it were, 

amd great offence, to kill 
Then any of these our guiltlesse men, 
for they haue done none ill. 

23. " Let thou and I the battell trye, 

and set our men aside : " 
" Accurst bee [he !] " Erie Pearcye sayd, 
" by whome it is denyed." 

24. Then stept a gallant squire forth — 

Witherington was his name — 

Who said, " I wold not haue it told 

To Henery our king, for shame, 

25. " That ere my captaine fought on foote, 

and I stand looking on. 
You bee two Erles," quoth. Witherington, 
" and I a squier alone ; 

26. " I 'le doe the best that doe I may, 

while I haue power to stand ; 
While I haue power to weeld my sword, 
I 'le fight with hart and hand." 



70 POPULAR BALLADS 

27. Our English archers bent thier bowes ; 

their harts were good and trew ; 
Att the first flight of arrowes sent, 
full foure score Scotts the slew. 

28. To driue the deere with hound and home, 

Dauglas bade on the bent ; 
Two captaines moued with mickle might, 
their speres to shiuers went. 

29. They closed full fast on euerye side, 

noe slacknes there was found, 
But many a gallant gentleman 
lay gasping on the ground. 

30. O Christ ! it was great greeue to see 

how eche man chose his spere, 
And how the blood out of their brests 
did gush like water cleare. 

31. At last these two stout erles did meet, 

like captaines of great might ; 
Like lyons woode they layd on lode ; 
the made a cruell fight. 

32. The fought vntill they both did sweat, 

with swords of tempered Steele, 
Till blood downe their cheekes like raine 
the trickling downe did feele. 

33. " O yeeld thee, Pearcye ! " Douglas sayd, 

'' And in faith I will thee bringe 
Where thou shall high advanced bee 
by lames our Scottish Mng, 



POPULAR BALLADS 71 

34. " Thy ransome I will freely giue, 

and this report of thee, 
Thou art the most couragious knight 
[that ever I did see.] " 

35. " Noe, Douglas ! " quoth Erie Percy then, 

" thy profer I doe scorne ; 
I will not yeelde to any Scott 
that euer yett was borne ! " 

36. With ^Aat there came an arrow keene, 

out of an English bow, 
Which stroke Erie Douglas on the brest 
a deepe and deadly e blow. 

37. Who neuer sayd more words than these ; 

a Fight on, my merry men all ! 
For why, my life is att [an] end, 
lord Pearcy sees my fall." 

38. Then leauing liffe, Erie Pearcy tooke 

the dead man by the hand ; 
Who said, " Erie Dowglas, for thy life, 
wold I had lost my land ! 

39. " O Christ ! my verry hart doth bleed 

for sorrow for thy sake, 
For sure, a more redoubted knight 
mischance cold neuer take." 

40. A knight amongst the Scotts there was 

wAich saw Erie Douglas dye, 
Who streight in hart did vow revenge 
vpon the Lord Pearcye. 



72 POPULAR BALLADS 

41. Sir Hugh Mountgomerye was he called, 

who, with a spere full bright. 

Well mounted on a gallant steed, 

ran feircly through the fight, 

42. And past the English archers all, 

without all dread or feare, 
And through Erie Percyes body then 
he thrust his hatfull spere. 

43. With such a vehement force and might 

his body he did gore, 
The staff ran through the other side 
a large cloth-yard and more. 

44. Thus did both those nobles dye, 

whose courage none cold staine ; 
An English archer then perceiued 
the noble erle was slaine. 

45. He had [a] good bow in his hand, 

made of a trusty tree ; 
An arrow of a cloth-yard long 
to the hard head haled hee. 

46. Against Sir Hugh Mountgomerye 

his shaft full right he sett ; 
The grey-goose-winge that was there-on 
in his harts bloode was wett. 

47. This fight from breake of day did last 

till setting of the sun, 
For when the rung the euening-bell 
the battele scarse was done. 



POPULAR BALLADS 73 

48. With stout Erie Percy there was slaine 

Sir lohn of Egerton, 
Sir Robert Harcliffe and Sir William, 
Sir lames, that bold barron. 

49. And with Sir George and Sir lames, 

both hiiights of good account, 
Good Sir Raphe Rebbye there was slaine, 
whose prowesse did surmount. 

50. For Wither ington needs must I wayle 

as one in doleful! dumpes, 
For when his leggs were smitten of, 
he fought vpon his stumpes. 

51. And with Erie Dowglas there was slaine 

Sir Hugh Mountgomerye, 
And Sir Charles Morrell, that from feelde 
one foote wold neuer flee ; 

52. Sir Roger Heuer of Harcliffe tow, 

his sisters sonne was hee ; 
Sir David Lamb well, well esteemed, 
but saved he cold not bee. 

53. And the Jjord Maxwell, in like case, 

with Douglas he did dye ; 
Of twenty hundred Scottish speeres, 
scarce fifty-fiue did flye. 

54. Of fifteen hundred Englishmen 

went home but fifty-three ; 
The rest in Cheuy Chase were slaine, 
vnder the greenwoode tree. 



74 POPULAR BALLADS 

55. Next day did many widdowes come 

their husbands to bewayle ; 
They washt their wounds in brinish teares, 
but all wold not prevayle. 

56. Theyr bodyes, bathed in purple blood, 

the bore with them away ; 
They kist them dead a thousand times' 
ere the were cladd in clay. 

57. The newes was brought to Eddenborrow, 

where Scottlands ki?i^ did rayne, 
That braue Erie Douglas soddainlye 
was with an arrow slaine. 

58. *' O heauy newes ! " King lames can say ; 

" Scottland may wittenesse bee 
I haue not any captai?ie more 
of such account as hee." 

59. Like tydings to King Henery came, 

within as short a space, 
T/iat Pearcy of Northumberland 
was slaine in Cheuy Chase. 

60. *' Now God be with him ! " said our king, 

" sith it will noe better bee ; 

I trust I haue within my realme 

fine hundred as good as hee. 

61. " Yett shall not Scotts nor Scottland say 

but I will vengeance take. 
And be revenged on them all 
for braue Erie Percyes sake." 



POPULAR BALLADS 75 

62. This vow the king did well performe 

after on Ilumble-downe ; 
In one day fifty hnighta were slayne, 
with lords of great renowne. 

63. And of the rest, of small account, 

did many hundreds dye : 
Thus endeth the hunting in Cheuy Chase, 
made by the Erie Pearcye. 

64. God saue our klnr/^ and blesse this land 

with plentye, ioy, and peace, 
And grant hencforth that foule debate 
twixt noble men may ceaze ! 



JOHNIE ARMSTRONG 

1. There dwelt a man in faire Westmerland, 

lonne Armestrong men did him call. 
He had nither lands nor rents coming in, 
Yet he kept eight score men in his hall. 

2. He had horse and harness for them all, 

Goodly steeds were all milke-white ; 
O the golden bands an about their necks. 
And their weapons, they were all alike. 

3. Newes then was brought unto the king 

That there was sicke a won as hee. 
That lived lyke a bold out-law, 
And robbed all the north coiuitry. 



76 POPULAR BALLADS 

4. The king he writt an letter then, 

A letter which was large and long ; 
He signed it with his owne hand, 

And he promised to doe him no wrong. 

5. When this letter came lonne untill, 

His heart it was as blythe as birds on the 
tree : 
" Never was I sent for before any king, 

My father, my grandfather, nor none but mee. 

6. " And if wee goe the king before, 

I would we went most orderly ; 
Every man of you shall have his scarlet cloak, 
Laced with silver laces three. 

7. " Every won of you shall have his velvett coat. 

Laced with sillver lace so white ; 
O the golden bands an about your necks, 
Black hatts, white feathers, all alyke." 

8. By the morrow morninge at ten of the clock, 

Towards Edenburough gon was hee. 
And with him all his eight score men ; 

Good lord, it was a goodly sight for to see ! 

9. When lonne came befower the king. 

He fell downe on his knee; 
" O pardon, my soveraine leige," he said, 
" O pardon my eight score men and mee ! " 

10. " Thou shalt have no pardon, thou traytor strong. 
For thy eight score men nor thee ; 



POPULAR BALLADS 77 

For to-morrow morning by ten of the clock, 

Both thou and them shall hang on the gallow- 
tree." 

11. But lonne looke'd over his left shoulder, 

Good Lord, what a grevious look looked hee ! 
Saying, " Asking grace of a graceles face — 
Why there is none for you nor me." 

12. But Tonne had a bright sword by his side, 

And it was made of the mettle so free, 
That had not the king stept his foot aside. 

He had smitten his head from his faire bodde. 

13. Saying, " Fight on, my merry men all. 

And see that none of you be taine ; 
For rather then men shall say we were hange'd, 
Let them report how we were slaine." 

14. Then, God wott, faire Eddenburrough rose, 

And so besett poore lonne rounde. 
That fowerscore and tenn of lonnes best men 
Lay gasping all upon the ground. 

15. Then like a mad man Tonne laide about, 

And like a mad man then fought hee, 
Untill a falce Scot came Tonne behinde. 
And runn him through the faire boddee. 

16. Saying, " Fight on, my merry men all. 

And see that none of you be taine ; 
For T will stand by and bleed but awhile. 
And then will T come and fight againe." 



78 POPULAR BALLADS 

17. Newes then was brought to young lonne Arme- 
strong, 
As he stood by his nurses knee, 
Who vowed if ere he live'd for to be a man, 
O the treacherous Scots revengd hee'd be. 



CAPTAIN CAR 

1. It befell at Martynmas, 

When wether waxed colde, 

Captaine Care said to his men, 

We must go take a holde. 

Syck, sike, and to-towe sike, 
And sike and like to die ; 

The sikest nighte that euer I abode, 
God lord haue mercy on me ! 

2. " Haille, master, and wether you will. 

And wether ye like it best " ; 
" To the castle of Crecrynbroghe, 
And there we will take our reste." 

3. " I knowe wher is a gay castle, 

Is builded of lyme and stone ; 
Within their is a gay ladie. 
Her lord is riden and gone." 

4. The ladie she lend on her castle-waUe, 

She loked vpp and downe ; 
There was she ware of an host of men, 
Come riding to the towne. 



POPULAR BALLADS 79 

5. " Se yow, my meri men all, 

And se yow what I see ? 
Yonder I see a host of me/i, 
I muse who they bee." 

6. She thought he had ben her wed lord, 

As he comd riding home ; 
Then was it trsiitur Captaine Care, 
The lord of Ester-towne. 

7. They wer no soner at supper sett. 

Then after said the grace, 
Or Captaine Care and all his men 
Wer lighte aboute the place. 

8. " Gyue ouer thi howsse, thou lady gay, 

And I will make the a bande ; 
To-nighte thou shall ly within my armes, 
To-morrowe thou shall ere my lande." 

9. The?^ bespacke the eldest sonne. 

That was both whitt and redde : 
" O mother dere, geue ouer your howsse. 
Or elles we shalbe deade." 

10. " I will not geue ouer my hous," she saithe, 

" Not for feare of my lyffe ; 
It shalbe talked throughout the land. 
The slaughter of a wyffe. 

11. " Fetch me my pe stile tt, 

And charge me my gonne, 
That I may shott at yonder bloddy butcher. 
The lord of Easter-towne." 



80 POPULAR BALLADS 

12. Styfly vpon her wall she stode, 

And lett the pellettes flee ; 
But then she myst the blody bucher, 
And she slew other three. 

13. '' [I will] not geue ouer my hous," she saithe, 

" Netheir for lord, nor lowne ; 
Nor yet for trsiitour Captaine Care, 
The lord of Easter-towne. 

14. " I desire of Captine Care, 

And all his bloddye band. 
That he would saue my eldest sonne, 
The eare of all my lande." 

15. " Lap him in a shete," he sayth, 

"And let him downe to me, 
And I shall take him in my amies, 
His waran shall 1 be." 

16. The captayne sayd unto him selfe : 

Wyth sped, before the rest. 
He cut his tonge out of his head, 
His hart out of his brest. 

17. He lapt them in a handkerchef. 

And knet it of knotes three. 
And cast them ouer the cast ell- wall. 
At that gay ladye. 

18. " Fye vpon the, Captayne Care, 

And all thy bloddy band ! 
For thou hast slayne my eldest sonne, 
The ayre of all my land." 



POPULAR BALLADS 81 

19. Then bespake the yongest sonne, 

That sat on the nurses knee, 
Sayth, " Mother gay, geue ouer your house ; 
It smoldereth me." 

20. "I wold geue my gold," she saith, 

" And so I wolde my ffee. 
For a blaste of the westryn wind, 
To dryue the smoke from thee. 

21. " Fy vpo/i the, John Hamleton, 

That euer I paid the hyre ! 
For thou hast broken my castle-wall, 
And kyndled in the ifyre." 

22. The lady gate to her close parler, 

The fire fell aboute her head ; 
She toke vp her chMren thre, 
Seth, " Babes, we are all dead." 

23. Then bespake the hye steward, 

That is of hye degree ; 
Saith, " Ladie gay, you are in close. 
Wether ye fighte or flee." 

24. Lord Hamleto?! dremd in his dream. 

In Caruall where he laye. 
His halle were all of fyre, 
His ladie slayne or daye. 

25. " Busk and bowne, my mery men all, 

Eve?i and go ye with me ; 
For I dremd that my haal was on fyre, 
My lady slayne or day." 



82 POPULAR BALLADS 

26. He buskt liim and bownd hym, 

And like a wortlii knighte; 
And when he saw his hall burni?ig, 
His harte was no dele lighte. 

27. He sett a truw^pett till his mouth, 

He blew as it plesd his grace; 
TweTity score of Hamlentons 
Was light aboute the place. 

28. " Had I knowne as much yesternighte 

As I do to-daye, 
Captaine Care and all his men 
Should not haue gone so quite. 

29. " Fye vpon the, Captaine Care, 

And all thy blody bande ! 
Thou haste slayne my lady gay, 
More wwrth then all thy lande. 

30. " If thou had ought eny ill will," he saith, 

" Thou shoulde haue taken my lyife. 
And haue saved my children thre. 
All and my lonesome wyffe." 



THE BONNY EARL OF MURRAY 

1. Ye Highlands, and ye Lawlands, 
Oh where have you been ? 
They have slain the Earl of Murray, 
And they layd him on the green. 



POPULAR BALLADS 83 

2. " Now wae be to thee, Huntly ! 

And wherefore did you sae ? 
I bade you bring him wi you, 
But forbade you him to slay." 

3. He was a braw gallant, 

And he rid at the ring ; 
And the bonny Earl of Murray, 
Oh he might have been a king ! 

4. He was a braw gallant. 

And he playd at the ba ; 
And the bonny Earl of Murray 
Was the flower amang them a\ 

6. He was a braw gallant, 

And he playd at the glove ; 
And the bonny Earl of Murray, 
Oh he was the Queen's love ! 

6. Oh lang will his lady 

Look oer the castle Down, 
Eer she see the Earl of Murray 

Come sounding thro the town ! 
Eer she, etc. 



KINMONT WILLIE 

1. O HAVE ye na heard o the fause Sakelde ? 

O have ye na heard o the keen Lord Scroop ? 
How they hae taen bauld Kinmont Willie, 
On Hairibee to hang him up ? 



84 POPULAR BALLADS 

2. Had Willie had but twenty men, 

But twenty men as stout as he, 
Fause Sakelde had never the Kinmont taen, 
Wi eight score in his companie. 

3. They band his legs beneath the steed. 

They tied his hands behind his back ; 
They guarded him, fivesome on each side. 
And they brought him ower the Liddel-rack. 

4. They led him thro the Liddel-rack, 

And also thro the Carlisle sands ; 
They brought him to Carlisle castell, 
To be at my Lord Scroope's commands. 

5. " My hands are tied, but my tongue is free, 

And whae will dare this deed avow ? 
Or answer by the border law? 

Or answer to the bauld Buccleuch?" 

6. " Now hand thy tongue, thou rank reiver ! 

There 's never a Scot shall set ye free ; 
Before ye cross my castle-yate, 

I trow ye shall take farewell o me." 

7. " Fear na ye that, my lord," quo Willie ; 

" By the faith o my bodie, Lord Scroop," he said, 
" I never yet lodged in a hostelrie 
But I paid my la wing before I gaed." 

8. Now word is gane to the bauld Keeper, 

In Branksome Ha where that he lay. 
That Lord Scroope has taen the Kinmont Willie, 
Between the hours of night and day. 



POPULAR BALLADS 85 

9. He has taen the table wi his hand. 

He garrd the red wine spring on hie ; 
" Now Christ's curse on my head," he said, 
" But avenged of Lord Scroop I '11 be ! 

10. " O is my basnet a widow's curch? 

Or my lance a wand of the willow-tree ? 
Or my arm a ladye's lilye hand ? 

That an English lord should lightly me. 

11. " And have they taen him Kinmont Willie, 

Against the truce of Border tide. 
And forgotten that the bauld Bacleuch 
Is keeper here on the Scottish side ? 

12. " And have they een taen him Kinmont Willie, 

Withouten either dread or fear. 
And forgotten that the bauld Bacleuch 
Can back a steed, or shake a spear ? 

13. " O were there war between the lands. 

As well I wot that there is none, 
I would slight Carlisle castell high, 
Tho it were builded of marble-stone. 

14. "I would set that castell in a low. 

And sloken it with English blood ; 
There 's nevir a man in Cumberland 
Should ken where Carlisle castell stood. 

15. "But since nae war's between the lands. 

And there is peace, and peace should be, 
I '11 neither harm English lad or lass, 
And yet the Kinmont freed shall be ! " 



86 POPULAR BALLADS 

16. He has calld him forty marchmen bauld, 

I trow they were of his ain name, 
Except Sir Gilbert Elliot, calld 
The Laird of Stobs, I mean the same. 

17. He has calld him forty marchmen bauld, 

Were kinsmen to the bauld Buccleuch, 
With spur on heel, and splent on spauld. 
And gleuves of green, and feathers blue. 

18. There were five and five before them a', 

Wi hunting-horns and bugles bright ; 
And five and five came wi Buccleuch, 
Like Warden's men, arrayed for fight. 

19. And five and five like a mason-gang. 

That carried the ladders lang and hie ; 
And five and five like broken men ; 

And so they reached the Woodhouselee. 

20. And as we crossed the Bateable Land, 

When to the English side we held. 
The first o men that we met wi, 

Whae soidd it be but fause Sakelde ! 

21. " Where be ye gaun, ye hunters keen? " 

Quo fause Sakelde ; " come tell to me ! " 
" We go to hunt an English stag. 
Has trespassd on the Scots countrie." 

22. " Where be ye gaun, ye marshal-men ? " 

Quo fause Sakelde ; " come tell to me true ! " 
" We go to catch a rank reiver. 

Has broken faith wi the bauld Buccleuch.'* 



POPULAR BALLADS 87 

23. " Where are ye gaun, ye mason-lads, 

Wi a' your ladders lang and hie ? " 
u "WTe gang to herry a corbie's nest, 

That wons not far frae Woodhouselee." 

24. " Where be ye gaun, ye broken men ? " 

Quo f ause Sakelde ; '' come tell to me ! " 
Now Dickie of Dryhope led that band. 
And the never a word o lear had he. 

25. "Why trespass ye on the English side? 

Row-footed outlaws, stand ! " quo he ; 
The neer a word had Dickie to say, 

Sae he thrust the lance thro his fause bodie. . 

26. Then on we held for Carlisle toun. 

And at Staneshaw-bank the Eden we crossd ; 
The water was great, and meikle of spait, 
But the nevir a horse nor man we lost. 

27. And when we reached the Stanshaw-bank, 

The wind was rising loud and hie ; 
And there the laird garrd leave our steeds. 
For fear that they should stamp and nie. 

28. And when we left the Staneshaw-bank, 

The wind began full loud to blaw ; 
But 't was wind and weet, and fire and sleet, 
When we came beneath the castel-wa. 

29. We crept on knees, and held our breath. 

Till we placed the ladders against the wa; 
And sae ready was Buccleuch himsell 
To mount the first before us a'. 



88 POPULAR BALLADS 

30. He has taen tlie watchman by the throat, 

He flung him down upon the lead : 
" Had there not been peace between our lands, 
Upon the other side thou hadst gaed. 

31. "Now sound out, trumpets! " quo Buccleuch ; 

" Let 's waken Lord Scroope right merrilie ! 
Then loud the Warden's trumpets blew 
" O whae dare meddle wi me ? " 

32. Then speedilie to wark we gaed. 

And raised the slogan ane and a'. 
And cut a hole thro a sheet of lead. 
And so we wan to the castel-ha. 

33. They thought King James and a' his men 

Had won the house wi bow and speir : 
It was but twenty Scots and ten 
That put a thousand in sic a stear ! 

34. Wi coulters and wi forehammers, 

We garrd the bars bang merrilie, 
Untill we came to the inner prison, 
Where Willie o Kinmont he did lie. 

35. And when we cam to the lower prison. 

Where Willie o Kinmont he did lie, 
" O sleep ye, wake ye, Kinmont Willie, 
Upon the morn that thou's to die?" 

36. "01 sleep saft, and I wake aft, 

It 's lang since sleeping was fleyd frae me ; 
Gie my service back to my wyfe and bairns. 
And a' gude fellows that speer for me." 



POPULAR BALLADS 89 

37. Then Red Rowan has hente him up, 

The starkest men in Teviotdale : 
"Abide, abide now, Red Rowan, 

Till of my Lord Scroope I take farewell. 

38. " Farewell, farewell, my gude Lord Scroope ! 

My gude Lord Scroope, farewell ! " he cried ; 
" I '11 pay you for my lodging-maill 

When first we meet on the border-side." 

39. Then shoulder high, with shout and cry, 

We bore him down the ladder lang ; 
At every stride Red Rowan made, 

I wot the Kinmont's aims playd clang. 

40. " O mony a time," quo Kinmont Willie, 

" I have ridden horse baith wild and wood ; 
But a rougher beast than Red Rowan 
I ween my legs have neer bestrode. 

41. " And mony a time," quo Kinmont Willie, 

" I 've pricked a horse out oure the furs ; 
But since the day I backed a steed 
I nevir wore sic cumbrous spurs." 

42. We scarce had won the Staneshaw-bank, 

When a' the Carlisle bells were rung. 
And a thousand men, in horse and foot, 
Cam wi the keen Lord Scroope along. 

43. Buccleuch has turned to Eden Water, 

Even where it flowd frae bank to brim. 
And he has plunged in wi a' his band. 
And safely swam them thro the stream. 



90 ' POPULAR BALLADS 

44. He turned him on the other side, 

And at Lord Scroope his glove flung he 
*' If ye like na my visit in merry England, 
In fair Scotland come visit me ! " 



45. All sore astonished stood Lord Scroope, 

He stood as still as rock of stane ; 
He scarcely dared to trew his eyes 
When thro the water they had gane. 

46. "He is either himsell a devil frae hell. 

Or else his mother a witch maun be ; 
I wad na have ridden that wan water 
For a' the gowd in Christentie." 



BONNIE GEORGE CAMPBELL 

1. Hie upon Hielands, 

and laigh upon Tay, 
Bonnie George Campbell 
rode out on a day. 

2. He saddled, he bridled, 

and gallant rode he, 
And hame cam his guid horse, 
but never cam he. 

3. Out cam his mother dear, 

greeting fa sair, 
And out cam his bonnie bryde, 
riving her hair. 



POPULAR BALLADS 91 

4. " The meadow lies green, 
the corn is unshorn, 
But bonnie George Campbell 
will never return." 



6. Saddled and bridled 
and booted rode he, 
A plume in his helmet, 
A sword at his knee. 

6. But toom cam his saddle, 
all bloody to see. 
Oh, hame cam his guid horse, 
but never cam he ! 



THE DOWY HOUMS O YARROW 

1. Late at een, drinkin the wine, 

Or early in a mornin. 
The set a combat them between. 
To fight it in the dawnin. 

2. " O stay at hame, my noble lord ! 

O stay at hame, my marrow I 
My cruel brother will you betray. 
On the dowy houms o Yarrow." 

3. " O fare ye weel, my lady gaye ! 

O fare ye weel, my Sarah ! 
For I maun gae, tho I neer return 
Frae the dowy banks o Yarrow." 



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4. She kissed his cheek, she kaimd his hair, 

As she had done before, O ; 
She belted on his noble brand, 
An he 's awa to Yarrow. 

5. O he 's gane up yon high, high hill — 

I wat he gaed wi sorrow — 
And in a den spied nine armd men, 
I the dowy houms o Yarrow. 

6. " O ir ye come to drink the wine, 

As ye hae doon before, O ? 
Or ir ye come to wield the brand, 
On the bonny banks o Yarrow ? " 

7. " I im no come to drink the wine, 

As I hae don before, O, 
But I im come to wield the brand, 
On the dowy houms o Yarrow." 

8. Four he hurt, an five he slew. 

On the dowy houms o Yarrow, 
Till that stubborn knight came him behind. 
An ran his body thorrow. 

9. " Gae hame, gae hame, good-brother John, 

An tell your sister Sarah 
To come an lift her noble lord. 
Who 's sleepin sound on Yarrow." 

10. " Yestreen I dreamd a dolefu dream ; 
I kend there wad be sorrow ; 
I dreamd I pu'd the heather green, 
On the dowy banks o Yarrow." 



POPULAR BALLADS 93 

11. She gaed up yon high, high hill — 

I wat she gaed wi sorrow — 
An in a den spy'd nine dead men, 
On the dowy houms o Yarrow. 

12. She kissed his cheek, she kaimd his hair, 

As oft she did before, O ; 
She drank the red blood frae him ran, 
On the dowy houms o Yarrow. 

13. " O hand your tongue, my douchter dear, 

For what needs a' this sorrow? 
I '11 wed you on a better lord 
Than him you lost on Yarrow." 

14. '' O hand your tongue, my father dear, 

An dinna grieve your Sarah ; 
A better lord was never born 
Than him I lost on Yarrow. 

15. " Tak hame your ousen, tak hame your kye, 

For they hae bred our sorrow ; 
I wiss that they had a' gane mad 
Whan they cam first to Yarrow." 



JOHNIE COCK 

1. JoHNY he has risen up i the morn. 
Calls for water to wash his hands ; 
But little knew he that his bloody hounds 
Were bound in iron bands. bands 
Were bound in iron bands. 



94 POPULAR BALLADS 

2. Johny's mother has gotten word o that, 

And care-bed she has taen: 
" O Johny, for my benison, 

I beg you '1 stay at hame ; 
For the wine so red, and the well baken bread, 

My Johny shall want nane. 

3. " There are seven forsters at Pickeram Side, 

At Pickeram where they dwell, 
And for a drop of thy heart's bluid 
They wad ride the fords of hell." 

4. Johny he 's gotten word of that. 

And he 's turnd wondrous keen ; 
He 's put off the red scarlett, 

And he 's put on the Lincolm green. 

5. With a sheaf of arrows by his side. 

And a bent bow in his hand. 
He 's mounted on a prancing steed. 
And he has ridden fast oer the strand. 

6. He 's up i Braidhouplee, and down i Bradyslee, 

And under a buss o broom. 
And there he found a good dun deer. 
Feeding in a buss of ling. 

7. Johny shot, and the dun deer lap. 

And she lap wondrous wide. 
Until they came to the wan water. 
And he stemd her of her pride. 

8. He 'as taen out the little pen-knife, 

'T was full three quarters long. 



POPULAR BALLADS 95 

And he has taen out of that dim deer 
The liver hot and the tongue. 

9. They eat of the flesh, and they drank of the 
blood, 
And the blood it was so sweet. 
Which caused Johny and his bloody hounds 
To fall in a deep sleep. 

10. By then came an old palmer, 

And an ill death may he die ! 
For he 's away to Pickram Side, 
As fast as he can drie. 

11. " What news, what news ? " says the Seven Fors- 

ters, 
•' What news have ye brought to me ? " 
" I have noe news," the palmer said, 
" But what I saw with my eye. 

12. '' High up i Bradyslee, low down i Bradisslee, 

And under a buss of scroggs, 
O there I spied a well-wight man, 
Sleeping among his dogs. 

13. " His coat it was of Light Lincolm, 

And his breeches of the same, 
His shoes of the American leather. 
And gold buckles tying them." 

14. Up bespake the Seven Forsters, 

Up bespake they ane and a' : 
« O that is Johny o Cockleys Well, 
And near him we will draw." 



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15. O the first y stroke that they gae him, 

Tliey struck him off by the knee ; 
Then up bespake his sister's son: 
'* O the next '11 gar him die ! " 

16. " O some they count ye well- wight men, 

But I do count ye nane ; 
For you might well ha wakend me. 
And askd gin I wad be taen. 

17. " The wildest wolf in aw this wood 

Wad not ha done so by me; 
She 'd ha wet her foot ith wan water. 

And sprinkled it oer my brae, 
And if that wad not ha wakend me, 

She wad ha gone and let me be. 

18. " O bows of yew, if ye be true. 

In London, where ye were bought. 
Fingers five, get up belive, 

Manhuid shall fail me nought." 

19. He has killd the Seven Forsters, 

He has killd them all but ane. 
And that wan scarce to Pickeram Side, 
To carry the bode- words hame. 

20. " Is there never a boy in a' this wood 

That will tell what I can say; 
That will go to Cockleys Well, 

Tell my mither to fetch me away ? " 

21. There was a boy into that wood. 

That carried the tidings away. 



POPULAR BALLADS 97 

And many ae was the well-wight man 
At the fetching o Johny away. 



ROBIN HOOD AND GUY OF GISBORNE 

1. When shawes beene sheene, and shradds full fayre, 

And leeues both large and longe, 
Itt is merry, walking in the fayre fforrest, 
To heare the small birds songe. 

2. The woodweele sang, and wold not cease, 

Amongst the leaues a lyne : 
And it is by two wight yeomen, 
By deare God, that I meane. 



3. " Me thought they did mee beate and binde, 

And tooke my bow mee f roe ; 
If I bee Robin a-liue in this lande, 
I 'le be wrocken on both them to we." 

4. " Sweauens are swift, master," q?/oth lohn 

" As the wind that blowes ore a hill ; 
Ffor if itt be neuer soe lowde this night. 
To-morrow it may be still." 

5. " Buske yee, bowne yee, my merry men all. 

Ffor lohn shall goe with mee ; 
For I 'le goe seeke yond wight yeomen 
In greenwood where the bee." 

6. The cast on their gowne of greene, 

A shooting gone are they, 



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Vntill they came to the merry greenwood, 
Where they had gladdest bee ; 

There were the ware of [a] wight yeoman, 
His body leaned to a tree. 

• 7. A sword and a dagger he wore by his side, 
Had beene many a mans bane, 
And he was cladd in his capuU-hyde, 
Topp, and tayle, and mayne. 

8. " Stand you still, master,'' quoth Litle lohn, 

" Vnder this trusty tree. 
And I will goe to yond wight yeoman. 
To know his meaning trulye." 

9. "A, lohn, by me thou setts noe store, 

And that 's a ffarley thinge ; 

How offt send I my men beffore. 

And tarry my-selfe behinde ? 

10. " It is noe cunning a knaue to ken, 

And a man but heare him speake ; 
And itt were not for bursting of my bo we, 
lohn, I wold thy head breake." 

11. But often words they breeden bale, 

That parted Eobin and lohn ; 
lohn is gone to Barn[e]sdale, 
The gates he knowes eche one. 

12. And when hee came to Barnesdale, 

Great heauinesse there hee hadd ; 
He ffound two of his fellowes 
Were slaine both in a slade, 



POPULAR BALLADS 99 

13. And Scarlett a ffoote flyinge was, 

Ouer stockes and stone, 
For the sheriffe with seuen score men 
Fast after him is gone. 

14. " Yett one shoote I 'le shoote," sayes Litle lohn, 

" With Crist his might and mayne ; 
I 'le make yond fellow that flyes soe fast 
To be both glad and ffaine." 

15. lohn bent vp a good veiwe bow. 

And ffetteled him to shoote ; 
The bow was made of a tender boughe, 
And fell downe to his foote. 

16. " Woe worth thee, wicked wood," sayd Litle lohn, 

" Thai ere thou grew on a tree ! 
Ff or this day thou art my bale. 
My boote when thou shold bee ! " 

17. This shoote it was but looselye shott, 

The arrowe flew in vaine. 
And it mett one of the sheriffes men ; 
Good William a Trent was slaine. 

18. It had beene better for William a Trent 

To hange.vpon a gallowe 
Then for to lye in the greenwoode. 
There slaine with an arrowe. 

19. And it is sayd, when men be mett. 

Six can doe more then three : 
And they haue tane Litle lohn, 
And bound him ffast to a tree. 



100 POPULAR BALLADS 

20. " Tliou shalt be drawen by dale and downe," quoth. 

the sheriffe, 
" And hanged hye on a hill " : 
" But thou may fPayle," qi^oth Litle lohn, 
" If itt be Christs owne will." 

21. Let vs leaue talking of Litle lohn, 

For hee is bound fast to a tree, 
And talke of Guy and Robin Hood, 
In the green woode where they bee. 

22. How these two yeomen together they mett, 

Vnder the leaues of lyne. 
To see what marchandise they made 
Euen at that same time. 

23. " Good morrow, good fellow," quoth. Sir Guy ; 

" Good morrow, good ffeUow," quoth hee ; 
" Methinkes by this bow thou beares in thy hand, 
A good archer thou seems to bee." 

24. " I am wilfuU of my way," quoth Sir Guye, 

" And of my morning tyde " : 
" I 'le lead thee through the wood," quoth Robin, 
" Good ffeUow, I 'le be thy guide." 

25. "I seeke an outlaw," q?/oth Sir Guye, 

" Men call him Robin Hood ; 
I had rather meet with him vpon a day 
Then forty pound of golde." 

26. '' If you tow mett, itt wold be seene whether were 

better 
Afore yee did ipart awaye ; 



POPULAR BALLADS 101 

Let vs some other pastime find, 
Good ffellow, I thee pray. 

27. '' Let vs some other mastery es make, 

And wee will walke in the woods euen ; 
Wee may chance mee[t] with Robin Hoode 
Att some vnsett steven." 

28. They cutt them downe the summer shroggs 

W/w'ch grew both vnder a bryar, 
And sett them three score rood in twinn, 
To shoote the prickes full neare. 

29. " Leade on, good ffellow," sayd Sir Guye, 

" Lead on, I doe bidd thee " : 
" Nay, by my faith," quoth Robin Hood, 
" The leader thou shalt bee." 

30. The first good shoot that Robin ledd 

Did not shoote an inch the pricke ifroe ; 
Guy was an archer good enoughe. 
But he cold neere shoote soe. 

31. The second shoote Sir Guy shott, 

He shott within the garlande ; 
But Robin Hoode shott it better then hee, 
For he clone the good pricke-wande. 

32. " Gods blessing on thy heart ! " sayes Guye, 

" Goode ffellow, thy shooting is goode ; 
For an thy hart be as good as thy hands, 
Thou were better then Robin Hood. 



102 POPULAR BALLADS 

33. "Tell me thy name, good ffellow," quoth. Guy, 

" Vnder the leaues of lyne " : 
" Nay, by my faith," qicoth. good Robin, 
" Till thou haue told me thine." 

34. " I dwell by dale and downe," quoth Guye, 

" And I haue done many a curst turne ; 
And he that calles me by my right name 
Calles me Guye of good Gysborne." 

35. " My dwelling is in the wood," sayes Robin ; 

" By thee I set right nought ; 
My name is Robin Hood of Barnesdale, 
A ffellow thou has long sought." 

36. He that had neither beene a kithe nor kin 

Might haue seene a full fayre sight, 
To see how together these yeomen went. 
With blades both browne and bright. 

37. To haue seene how these yeomen together f oug [ht] , 

Two howers of a summers day ; 

Itt was neither Guy nor Robin Hood 

That ffettled them to flye away. 

38. Robin was reacheles on a roots. 

And stumbled at that tyde. 
And Guy was quicke and nimble withall, 
And hitt him ore the left side. 

39. " Ah, deere Lady ! " sayd Robin Hoode, 

" Thou art both mother and may ! 
I thinke it was neuer mans destinye 
To dye before his day." 



POPULAR BALLADS 103 

40. Robin thought on Our Lady deere, 

And soone leapt vp againe, 
And thus he came with an awkwarde stroke ; 
Good Sir Guy hee has slayne. 

41. He tooke Sir Guys head by the hayre, 

And sticked itt on his bowes end : 

" Thou hast beene traytor all thy liffe, 

Which thing must haue an ende." 

42. Robin pulled forth an Irish kniffe, 

And nicked Sir Guy in the fface, 
That hee was neuer on a woman borne 
Cold tell who Sir Guye was. 

43. Saies, " Lye there, lye there, good Sir Guye, 

And with me be not wrothe ; 
If thou haue had the worse stroakes at my hand, 
Thou shalt haue the better cloathe." 

44. Robin did off his gowne of greene, 

Sir Guy hee did it thro we ; 

And hee put on that capull-hyde, 

That cladd him topp to toe. 

45. " The bowe, the arrowes, and litle home, 

And with me now I 'le beare ; 
Ffor now I will goe to Barn [ejsdale, 
To see how my men doe ffare." 

46. Robin sett Guyes home to his mouth, 

A lowd blast in it he did blow ; 
That beheard the sheriffe of Nottingham, 
As he leaned vnder a lowe. 



104 POPULAR BALLADS 

47. " Hearken ! hearken ! " sayd the sheriffe, 

" I heard noe tydings but good ; 
For yonder I heare Sir Guyes home bio we, 
For he hath slaine Robin Hoode. 

48. " For yonder I heare Sir Guyes home blow, 

Itt blowes soe well in tyde, 
For yonder comes that wighty yeoman, 
Cladd in his capull-hyde. 

49. " Come hither, thou good Sir Guy, 

Aske of mee what thou wilt haue " : 
" I 'le none of thy gold," sayes Robin Hood, 
" Nor I 'le none of itt haue. 

60. " But now I haue slaine the mas^e/"," he sayd, 
" Let me goe strike the knaue ; 
This is all the reward I aske. 
Nor noe other will I haue." 

51. " Thou art a madman," said the shiriffe, 

" Thou sholdest haue had a knights ffee ; 
Seeing thy asking [hath] beene soe badd, 
Well granted it shall be." 

52. But Li tie lohn heard his master speake, 

Well he knew that was his steuen ; 
" Now shall I be loset," qwoth Litle John, 
" With Christs might in heauen." 

53. But Robin hee hyed him towards Litle lohn, 

Hee thought hee wold loose him beliue ; 
The sheriffe and all his companye 
Fast after him did driue. 



POPULAR BALLADS 105 

54. " Stand abacke ! stand abacke ! " sayd Robin ; 

" Why draw you mee soe neere ? 
Itt was neuer the vse in our countrye 
One's shrift another shokl heere." 

55. But Robin pulled forth an Irysh kniffe, 

And losed lohn hand and ffoote, 
And gaue him Sir Guyes bow in his hand, 
And bade it be his boote. 

56. But lohn tooke Guyes bow in his hand — 

His arrowes were rawstye by the roote — ; 
The sherriffe saw Litle lohn draw a bow 
And ffettle him to shoote. 

57. Towards his house in Nottingam 

He ffled full fast away, 
And soe did all his companye, 
Not one behind did stay. 

58. But he cold neither soe fast goe, 

Nor away soe fast runn, 
But Litle lohn, with an arrow broade, 
Did cleaue his heart in twinn. 



ROBIN HOOD'S DEATH AND BURIAL 

1. When Robin Hood and Little John 

Down a down a down a down 
Went oer yon bank of broom, 

Said Robin Hood bold to Little John, 
" We have shot for many a pound." 

Hey down, a down, a down. 



106 POPULAR BALLADS 

2. " But I am not able to shoot one shot more, 

My broad arrows will not flee ; 
But I have a cousin lives down below, 
Please God, she will bleed me." 

3. Now Kobin he is to fair Kirkly gone. 

As fast as he can win ; 
But before he came there, as we do hear, 
He was taken very ill. 

4. And when he came to fair Kirkly-hall, 

He knockd all at the ring. 
But none was so ready as his cousin herself 
For to let bold Robin in. 

5. " Will you please to sit down, cousin Robin," she said, 

" And drink some beer with me ? " 
" No, I will neither eat nor drink. 
Till I am blooded by thee." 

6. " Well, 1 have a room, cousin Robin," she said, 

" Which you did never see, 
And if you please to walk therein, 
You blooded by me shall be." 

7. She took him by the lily-white hand. 

And led him to a private room, 
And there she blooded bold Robin Hood, 
While one drop of blood would run down. 

8. She blooded him in a vein of the arm. 

And locked him up in the room ; 
Then did he bleed all the live-long day, 
Until the next day at noon. 



POPULAR BALLADS 107 

9. He then bethought him of a casement there, 

Thinking for to get down ; 
But was so weak he coukl not leap, 
He could not get him down. 

10. He then bethought him of his bugle-horn, 

Which hung low down to his knee ; 
He set his horn unto his mouth, 
And blew out weak blasts three. 

11. Then Little John, when hearing him, 

As he sat under a tree, 
" I fear my master is now near dead, 
He blows so wearily." 

12. Then Little John to fair Kirkly is gone, , 

As fast as he can dree ; 
But when he came to Kirkly-hall, 
He broke locks two or three : 

13. Until he came bold Robin to see. 

Then he fell on his knee ; 
" A boon, a boon," cries Little John, 
" Master, I beg of thee." 

14. " What is that boon," said Robin Hood, 

" Little John, [thou] begs of me ? " 
" It is to burn fair Kirkly-hall, 
And all their nunnery." 

15. " Now nay, now nay," quoth Robin Hood, 

" That boon I 'U not grant thee ; 
I never hurt woman in all my life, 
Nor men in woman's company. 



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16. " I never hurt fair maid in all my time, 

Nor at mine end shall it be ; 
But give me my bent bow in my hand, 

And a broad arrow I '11 let flee 
And where this arrow is taken up, 

There shall my grave digged be. 

17. " Lay me a green sod under my head, 

And another at my feet ; 
And lay my bent bow by my side, 

Which was my music sweet ; 
And make my grave of gravel and green, 

Which is most right and meet. 

18. " Let me have length and breadth enough. 

With a green sod under my head ; 
That they may say, when I am dead, 
Here lies bold Robin Hood." 

19. These words they readily granted him. 

Which did bold Robin please : 
And there they buried bold Robin Hood, 
Within the fair Kirkleys. 



ROBIN HOOD RESCUING THE WIDOW'S 
THREE SONS 

1. There are twelve months in all the year 
As I hear many men say, 
But the merriest month in all the year. 
Is the merry month of May. 



POPULAR BALLADS 109 

2. Now Robin Hood is to Nottingham gone, 

With a link a down and a day, 
And there he met a silly old woman, 
Was weeping on the way. 

3. " What news? what news, thou silly old woman ? 

What news hast thou for me ? " 
Said she, " There 's three squires in Nottingham 
town 
To-day is condemned to die." 

4. " O have they parishes burnt?" he said, 

" Or have they ministers slain ? 
Or have they robbed any virgin. 

Or with other men's wives have lain ? " 

5. "They have no parishes burnt, good sir. 

Nor yet have ministers slain. 
Nor have they robbed any virgin. 

Nor with other men's wives have lain." 

6. '' O what have they done?" said bold Robin Hood, 

" I pray thee tell to me " : 
" It 's for slaying of the king's fallow deer, 
Bearing their long bows with thee." 

7. " Dost thou not mind, old woman," he said, 

" Since thou made me sup and dine ? 
By the truth of my body," quoth bold Robin Hood, 
" You could not tell it in better time." 

8. Now Robin Hood is to Nottingham gone. 

With a link a down and a day, 



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And there he met with a silly old palmer, 
Was walking along the highway. 

9. "What news? what news, thou silly old man? 
What news, I do thee pray?" 
Said he, " Three squires in Nottingham town 
Are condemnd to die this day." 

10. " Come change thy apparel with me, old man, 

Come change thy apparel for mine ; 
Here is forty shillings in good silver, 
Go drink it in beer or wine." 

11. "O thine apparel is good," he said, 

" And mine is ragged and torn ; 
Whereever you go, wherever you ride. 
Laugh neer an old man to scorn." 

12. '' Come change thy apparel with me, old churl. 

Come change thy apparel with mine ; 
Here are twenty pieces of good broad gold, 
Go feast thy brethern with wine." 

13. Then he put on the old man's hat, 

It stood full high on the crown : 
" The first bold bargain that I come at, 
It shall make thee come down." 

14. Then he put on the old man's cloak. 

Was patchd black, blew, and red ; 
He thought no shame all the day long 
To wear the bags of bread. 



POPULAR BALLADS 111 

15. Then he put on the okl man's breaks, 

Was patchcl from ballup to side ; 
" By the truth of my body," bold Kobin can say, 
'^ This man lovd little pride." 

16. Then he put on the old man's hose, 

Were patched from knee to wrist; 
" By the truth of my body,'" said bold Robin Hood, 
" I'd laugh if I had any list." 

17. Then he put on the old man's shoes. 

Were patched both beneath and aboon ; 
Then Robin Hood swore a solemn oath, 
" It 's good habit that makes a man." 

18. Now Robin Hood is to Nottingham gone. 

With a link a down and a down. 
And there he met with the proud sheriff, 
Was walking along the town. 

19. "O save, O save, O sheriff," he said, 

" O save, and you may see ! 
And what will you give to a silly old man 
To-day will your hangman be ? " 

20. " Some suits, some suits," the sheriff he said, 

" Some suits I '11 give to thee ; 
Some suits, some suits, and pence thirteen 
To-day 's a hangman's fee." 

21. Then Robin he turns him round about. 

And jumps from stock to stone ; 
" By the truth of my body," the sheriff he said, 
''That's well jumpt, thou nimble old man." 



112 POPULAR BALLADS 

22. "I was neer a hangman in all my life, 

Nor yet intends to trade ; 
But curst be he,'* said bold Robin, 
" That first a hangman was made. 

23. " I 've a bag for meal, and a bag for malt, 

And a bag for barley and corn ; 
A bag for bread, and a bag for beef, 
And a bag for my little small horn. 

24. " I have a horn in my pocket, 

I got it from Robin Hood, 
And still when I set it to my mouth, 
For thee it blows little good." 

26. " O wind thy horn, thou proud fellow. 
Of thee I have no doubt ; 
I wish that thou give such a blast 
Till both thy eyes fall out." 

26. The first loud blast that he did blow. 

He blew both loud and shrill ; 
A hundred and fifty of Robin Hood's men 
Came riding oyer the hill. 

27. The next loud blast that he did give. 

He blew both loud and amain, 
And quickly sixty of Robin Hood's men 
Came shining over the plain. 

28. " O who are yon," the sheriff he said, 

" Come tripping over the lee ? " 
" The 're my attendants," brave Robin did say, 
••' They '11 pay a visit to thee." 



POPULAR BALLADS 113 

29. They took tlie gallows from the slack, 
They set it in the glen, 
They hangd the proud sheriff on that, 
Keleasd their own three men. 



NOTES 

THE DOUGLAS TRAGEDY 

The text is that printed by Child (I, 100) from Scott's 
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border. There are eleven ver- 
sions of this ballad, which is otherwise known as Earl Brand 
or Earl o'Bran, Lord Douglas, Lady Margaret, The Child 
of Ell. Child marks this ballad as preserving "most of the 
incidents of a very ancient story with a faithfulness un- 
equalled by any ballad that has been recovered from English 
oral tradition." The most primitive form is Scandinavian 
and runs briefly as follows : Ribold, a king's son, wins 
secretly the love of Guldborg. He promises to carry her to 
a land of perpetual happiness if she can escape from her 
family and her betrothed. She disguises herself in Ribold's 
armor and they proceed safely until they meet an earl who 
challenges Ribold, " Whither away with your stolen maid ? " 
Ribold swears that it is his sister, and then tries to bribe the 
earl to silence ; but to no avail. Guldborg's father is warned 
of their flight, and her kinsmen start in pursuit. When they 
overtake them Ribold dismounts, bids Guldborg hold his horse 
and, whatever happens, not call him by name : " Though 
thou see me bleed, name me not to death ; though thou see 
me fall, name me not at all." He kills all his pursuers, but 
when he comes to the youngest brother Guldborg's agony 
calls upon Ribold to spare him to bear the tidings back to 
her mother. As soon as his name is spoken, Ribold receives 
his death wound. Sheathing his sword, he offers Guldborg 
the opportunity of going back to her mother. But she chooses 
to follow her "' heart's dearest man." And when she ques- 
tions his silence as they ride together through the wood, he 
only replies, " Thy brother's sword has been in my heart." 



NOTES 115 

They reach Ribold's house at night, and before morning 
Ribold is dead. In our version, — 

Lord William was dead lang ere midnight. 
Lady Margret lang ere day. 

In others, Guldborg slays herself and dies in Ribold's 
arms. The Douglas Tragedy begins with the exhortation of 
Lady Margret's mother to her husband and sons to pursue 
the lovers. The scene of the fight is particularly well pre- 
served here ; but the incident of the " dead-naming " (cf. 
above, " Though thou see me bleed," etc.) is wholly lost. 
The penalty of naming the hero in a crisis appears in many 
Scandinavian traditions ; and Whittier's Kallundhorg 
Church retells such a " wild tale of the North." 

"The ballad of The Douglas Tragedy is one of the few 
to which popular tradition has ascribed complete locality. 
The farm of Blackhouse, in Selkirkshire, is said to have 
been the scene of this melancholy event. There are the 
remains of a very ancient tower, adjacent to the farmhouse, 
in a wild and solitary glen, upon a torrent named Douglas 
burn, which joins the Yarrow after passing a craggy rock 
called the Douglas craig. . . . From this ancient tower 
Lady Margaret is said to have been carried by her lover. 
Seven large stones, erected upon the neighboring heights of 
Blackhouse, are shown as marking the spot where the seven 
brethren were slain ; and the Douglas burn is averred to 
have been the stream at which the lovers stopped to drink : 
so minute is tradition in ascertaining the scene of a tragical 
tale, which, considering the rude state of former times, had 
probably foundation in some real event." — Scott. 

19. And they twa met, etc. : " The beautiful fancy of 
plants springing from the graves of star-crossed lovers, and 
signifying by the intertwining of stems or leaves, or in other 
analogous ways, that an earthly passion has not been ex- 
tinguished by death, presents itself, as is well known, very 
frequently in popular poetry. Though the graves be made 
far apart, even on opposite sides of the church, or one to 



116 NOTES 

the north and one to the south outside of the church, or one 
without kirk wall and one in choir, however separated, the 
vines or trees seek one another out, and mingle their 
branches or their foliage." — Child. Cf. Lord Thomas and 
Fair Annet in this collection, or Fair Margaret and Sweet 
William,^ Fair Janet, Prince Robert, and Lord Lovel in 
Sargent and Kittredge, English and Scottish Popidar 
Ballads. 

20. St. Mary's Loch : really a widening of the Yarrow 
in Selkirkshire. Wordsworth's lines in Yarrow Unvisitedy 
come at once to mind : — 

The swan on still St. Mary's Lake 
Float double, swan and shadow. 



THE TWA SISTERS 

The text is that printed by Child (I, 127) from the 
Jamieson-Brown MS. (there are three sets of the ballads 
recited by Mr^. Brown, known from the names of their 
owners as the Jamieson-Brown MS., the William Tytler- 
Brown MS., and the Alexander Fraser Tytler-Brown MS.) 
excepting that Scott's refrain, " Binnorie, O Binnorie " is in- 
troduced as being more melodious and less confusing than 
Mrs. Brown's, which runs as follows : — 

There was twa sisters in a bowr, 

Edinburgh, Edinburgh. 
There was twa sisters in a bowr, 

Stirling for ay. 
There was twa sisters in a bowr, 
There came a knight to be their wooer. 

Bonny Saint Johnston stands upon Tay. 

There are twenty-seven versions of this ballad, and it is 
known by many other titles, as : The Miller and the King's 
Daughter, The Cruel Sister, The Bonnie Milldams of 
Binnorie, The Bonny Bows o London, The Miller s 
Melody. This ballad was very early in print, a broadside 



NOTES 117 

copy having been published in 165G. Child affirms that ver- 
sions of it are still alive as tradition in the British Isles, 
" generally traced to some old nurse, who sang them to the 
young ladies." It was a popular ballad also among the 
Scandinavians, all of whose versions end with the taking of 
the harp to the wedding of the elder sister and the betrothed 
of the drowned maiden. Most of the English versions are 
imperfect at the end and none of them give this wedding 
scene. In all of them some part of the maiden's body is 
taken for the making of the harp, or viol, or fiddle. This 
is suggested in our version with delicacy and beauty ; but in 
others the idea deteriorated into a grotesque treatment. Cf. 
from The Miller and the King's Daughter (Child, I, 
126): — 

What did he doe with her brest-bone ? 
He made him a vioU to play thereupon. 

What did he doe with her fingers so small ? 
He made him peggs to his violl withall. 

What did he doe with her nose-ridge ? 
Unto his violl he made him a bridge. 

What did he doe with her veynes so blew ? 
He made him strings to his violl thereto. 

What did he doe with her eyes so bright ? 
Upon his violl he played at first sight. 

What did he doe with her tongue so rough ? 
Unto the violl it spoke enough. 

What did he doe with her two shinues ? 
Unto the violl they danc'd Moll Syms. 



THE CRUEL BROTHER 

The text is that printed by Child (I, 145) from Alex- 
ander Eraser Tytler's Brown MS. There are fifteen versions 
of the ballad, which is also known as The Three Knights 
and Fine Floivers of the Valley. Child quotes Aytoun's 



118 NOTES 

remark, that " this is, perhaps, the most popular of all Scot- 
tish ballads, being commonly recited and sung even at the 
present day (1858)." In all versions the story turns upon 
the lady's forgetting to get the consent of her brother to her 
marriage, — an unpardonable sin in ballad literature. Equally 
characteristic of ballad plots is the peculiar testament she 
makes, leaving all good to those she loves, and all evil to 
the author of her death. Cf. the following ballad, Edward j 
and Lord Randal (Child, I, 157). In Fine Flowers of the 
Valley (Aytoun's version) the bequest to the brother is still 
more vindictive : — 

" And what will you leave to your brother John ? " 

(Fine flowers i' the valley;) 
" The gates o' hell to let him in," 

(Wi' the red, green, and the yellow.) 

Gummere in his discussion of the connection between bal- 
lads, singing, and dancing in early days {Old Ffiglish Bal- 
lads, Ixxxi, Ixxxii), speaks of the game of ball (cf. 1. 1 of 
The Cruel Brpther) which often accompanied the dancing. 
" The German Neidhart," he says, " who has so much to say 
about peasants' dancing, mentions a gay-colored ball, seem- 
ingly as part of the outfit." He quotes also from Bohme : 
*' In the dance, our oldest epic poems, — narrative folk-songs, 
— were sung, and the dance was the cause of their making ; 
the dance, and the game of ball that went with it, gave to 
these poems the name of ballad.'' 

21. The silver-shode steed: ballad steeds were com- 
monly shod and caparisoned with silver and gold. Cf. 
Lord Thomas and Fair Annet, stanza 16 ; Thomas Rymer, 
stanza 2 ; Young Waters, stanza 4 ; The Lass of Rock Royal, 
stanza 4. 

28. rive his hair: cf. Bonnie George Campbell, stanza 3. 

EDWARD 

The text is that printed by Child (I, 169) from Percy's 
Reliques. There are three versions, one only a fragment, by 



NOTES 119 

the same title. Professor Child says : " The affectedly an- 
tique spelling in Percy's copy has given rise to vague sus- 
picions concerning the authenticity of the ballad, or of the 
language ; but as spelling will not make an old ballad, so it 
will not unmake one. We have, but do not need, the later 
traditional copy (Motherwell's Mmstrels?/) to prove the 
other genuine. Edward is not only unimpeachable, but has 
ever been regarded as one of the noblest and most sterling 
specimens of the popular ballad." Professor Gummei^e, on 
this point, writes (The Popular Ballad, 111) : " 'Edward,' 
which the latest editor of the * Minstrelsy ' calls a ' doctored ' 
ballad, with its hint to Heinrich Heine for one of the 
finest verses in the 'Two Grenadiers,' with its slow, strong 
movement, its effective repetition, its alternating refrain of 
simple vocatives, may be doctored ; but would that its phy- 
sician could be found ! " There is an exact counterpart of 
this ballad of " tragedy of kin " in Swedish, other versions 
in Danish and Finnish, and all in the dialogue form between 
mother and son. But the last stanza of Edward contains 
the only suggestion that the mother was implicated in the 
guilt of the murder, — a touch which adds vastly to the 
pathos of the ballad. The fragmentary version (MS. of Al- 
exander Laing, 1829 ; Child, I, 170) contains the only re- 
ference to the original quarrel : — 

" what did the fray begin about ? 

My son, come tell to me : " 
" It began about the breaking- o the bonny hazel wand 

And a penny wad hae bought the tree." 

Edward furnishes an unusually convincing illustration of 
the chief structural feature of the popular ballad, — simple 
repetition with incremental changes that slowly but surely 
advance the story ; of its chief choral feature, — the sing- 
able refrain ; and of one of its inherited epic features, — 
dialogue. See Introduction, p. xvi ff. 



120 NOTES 

BABYLON; OR, THE BONNIE BANKS FORDIE 

The text is that printed by Child (I, 173) from Mother- 
well's Minstrelsy. There are six versions, otherwise known as 
The Banishd Man and The Duke of Perth's Three Daugh- 
ters. There are traditional versions of Babylon among all 
the Scandinavian people, some of which have not yet found 
their way into print. The tragedy in the Danish version is 
of a deeper dye, from the fact that the robbers there appear 
to the three ladies, not when they are pulling a forbidden 
flower, — which was always sure to call up the daemon of the 
place (cf. Tayn Lin, Child, I, 310) , — but when they are on 
their way to church to make up at high mass for having 
overslept their matins. Professor Gummere {^The Popular 
Ballad, 111 ff., 336) cites this as the best example of the 
" situation ballad." " Here," he says, " the situation retains 
its sovereignty, and keeps the ballad brief, abrupt, springing 
and pausing, full of incremental repetition, and mainly in 
dialogue form. • Pages of description cannot take the place 
of the ballad itself. . . . That the situation is fairly explo- 
sive in its tragic outcome must not blind us to the fact that 
it is a situation. Who the three ladies were, why the brother 
was banished, all the essentials of a narrative, in short, are 
wanting. Maupassant in his kind of art, the Icelandic saga 
in its kind of art, would have worked all this out. The 
longer romantic ballad itself would have come to terms, 
however briefly and awkwardly, with persons, place, time. 
Here no persons are described ; as merely ' a banished man,' 
the hero's name is indifferent ; the place is a fortuitous and 
meaningless part of the refrain ; the time is vague. ... Its 
art, like the art of painting, of sculpture, lies in the moment 
and in the moment's scope. ... To accent this impression 
one has only to contrast with ' Babylon ' a purely narrative 
ballad of the best type, say ' Robin Hood and the Monk ' or 
* Robin Hood and Guy of Gisborne.' . . . One gets not even 
a motive, not a shred of fact, for solution of this tragedy ; 
take it or leave it, — but the situation is the thing. A light- 



NOTES 121 

ning flash reveals it, and the dark straightway swallows it up ; 
who can study poses, faces, expressions, anything but the 
group and that swift climax of a merely hinted compli- 
cation ? " 

HINDHORN 

The text is that printed by Child (I, 201) from Mother- 
well's MS. There are nine versions of the ballad, which is 
variously known as Young Hyndhoim, Young Hyn Horn, 
Hynd Horn, Lowran Castle or the Wild Boar of Curridoo. 
A complete copy of this ballad was first given in 1827 (Kin- 
loch's Ancient Scottish Ballads). The ballad gives only 
the catastrophe of a story to be found in full in the Gest 
of King Horn, thirteenth century ; in a French romance, 
Horn et Rymenhild, fourteenth century ; and in Horn 
Childe and Maiden Bimnild, English, and also of the 
fourteenth century. Many of the incidents of the story 
occur in Scandinavian, German, and Swiss tradition ; and 
the part played by the ring is duplicated in one of Boccac- 
cio's tales in the Decameron, in a popular Greek ballad, and 
in a Russian romance. This merely proves how certain bal- 
lad incidents, sucli as the " recognition " incident and the 
*'test" incident (here, the transformation of the ring), are 
part of the world's common literary possessions, and, drift- 
ing about, find a resting-place here and there in various set- 
tings. The whole is a splendid example of a ballad-comedy, 
in which poetic justice brings happiness out of a seemingly 
hopeless tragic confusion. Although this is distinctly a bal- 
lad of situation, it is interesting to compare it with Baby- 
lon and note how much more it contains of introduction, 
explanation, and incident. 

3. seven living lavrocks : possibly these birds were to 
tell Horn what happened in his absence. Cf. with the 
agency of the birds in The Gay Goss-Hawk, Johnie Cock, 
and Young Hunting (Child, II, 144). 

8. " What news, what news ? " etc. : Child suggests that 
these stanzas (8-16) may have been borrowed from some 



122 NOTES 

Robin Hood ballad. C£. Robin Hood Rescuing the 
Widow's Three Sons, stanzas 9-18. 

13. Will you lend me your wig o hair ? etc. : since the 
ballad heroes and heroines are always fair-haired, Hind 
Horn finds a dark wig sufficient disguise. 

17. The bride came down, etc. : the dramatic touch of 
her coming in person is pointed more sharply in another 
version (in Motherwell's MS. as taken down from the sing- 
ing of a servant) : — 

The news unto the bonnie bride carae 
That at the yett there stands an auld man. 

" There stands an auld man at the king's gate ; 
He asketh a drink for Young Hyn Horn's sake." 

" I '11 go through nine fires so hot, 
But I '11 give him a drink for young Hyn Horn's sake." 

She gave him a drink out of her own hand ; 

He drank out the drink and he dropt in the ring. 



LORD THOMAS AND FAIR ANNET 

The text is that printed by Child (II, 182) from Percy's 
Reliques, " with some corrections from a MS. copy trans- 
mitted from Scotland." There' are ten versions of the bal- 
lad (two having been learned in America from Irish maid 
servants in Cambridge and Taunton, Massachusetts), which 
is otherwise known as The Nut-Brown Maid, The Brown 
Bride and Lord Thomas, Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor, 
Siveet Willie and Fair Annie. Similar ballads in French, 
Italian, and Norse testify to the general love and apprecia- 
tion of the story. Child speaks of it as " one of the most 
beautiful of our ballads, and indeed of all ballads." 

1. They had not talkt their fill : another version (Jamie- 
son's Popular Ballads) says : — 

And though they had sitten seven years, 
They neer wad had their fill. 



NOTES 123 

3. Glfye wull nevir wed a wife, etc. : the version in the 
Gibb MS. represents Annie as not so spirited in her answer : — 

Thick, thick lie your lands, Willie, 

And thin, thin lie mine ; 
An little wad a' your friends think 
O sic a kin as mine. 

And in still another version (Skene MS.) more sorrow and 
less haste is shown by Lord Thomas : — 

Willie is hame to his bower, 

To his book all alaue, 
And fair Annie is to her bower, 

To her book and lier seam. 

4. rede, mither, etc. : an interesting account of the 
parts played by the mother and the mother-in-law in ballad 
literature may be found in Gummere, The Popular Ballad, 

171 fe. 

8. a fat fadge hy the fyre : an alliteration quite unusual 
in ballad verse. If one is out of patience with the fickleness 
of Lord Thomas, he may read the other versions (Child, II, 
182-199), in many cf which he pleads, "O fair is Annie's 
face" and '' white is Annie's hand" and, 

" Sheep will die in cots, mither, 
And owsen die in byre ; 
And what 's this world's wealth to me 
An I get na my heart's desire ? " 

— Jamieson's Popular Ballads. 

10. " Pse rede ye tak Fair Annet,'' etc. : although we 
are supposed never to look behind the scenes in ballads, and 
to expect nothing so little as suggestion, yet we can hardly 
help surmising something of the history of this woman who 
pleads for love for love's sake. As if it were not even a de- 
batable question, another version (Kinloch MSS.) reads 

bluntly : — 

Out and spak his sister Jane, 
Where she sat be the fire : 
" What's the metter, brother Willie ? 
Taek ye your heart's desire." 



124 NOTES 

11. No, I will tak, etc. : an instance of the sudden turn 
a ballad sometimes takes without any trace of the process 
of the actor's mind. 

12. Up then rose fair Annet' s father : in the version last 
quoted Lord Thomas has the grace to break the news to 
Annie himself, considerately allowing that it is "gey sad 
news " to her. And in still another (Motherwell MS.) where 
he sends a messenger to Annie he evidently fears that the 
sight of her at his wedding in her usual dainty garments 
would be too much for him, for he forbids her to put on 
her silks *'so black," "so brown," "so green," or "so 

gray," 

But she must put on her suddled silks, 
That she wears every day. 

But Annie's decision is invariably to go shining " like onie 
queen." And in addition to the preparations described here, 
in the version of the Kinloch MSS. : — 

She 's orderd the smiths to the smithy, 

To shoe her a riding- steed ; 
She has orderd the tailors to her bouer, 

To dress her a riding weed. 

The gold, silver, and fine linen which Annie's poverty 
seem able to command are only an instance of ballad incon- 
sistency. 

19. skinMed : a delightful bit of word coining. 
21. Lord Thomas he clean for gat, etc. : another version 
(Motherwell's MS.) says that the result of his emotion was 
that, — 

The buttons on Lord Thomas' coat 
Brusted and brak in twa. 

23. TJp than spak the nut-browne bride, etc. : in several 
other versions it is Annie who gives the first thrust, as in 
the last quoted, — 

" Brown, brown is your steed," she says, 
But browner is your bride ; 
But gallant is that handkt^rc^hy 
That hideth her din hide," 



NOTES 125 

26. wood-wroth: madly wroth. 

29. Lord Thomas was btiried, etc. : in one of the Ameri- 
can versions he gave the directions : — 

" Bury my mother at my head, 
Fair Ellenor by my side, 
And bury the bonny brown girl at the end of the church, 
Where she will be far from me." 

And the same version ends : — 

They grew so tall, they sprung- so brood, 

They grew to a steeple top ; 
Twelve o'clock every night 

They grew to a true lover's knot. 



LOVE GREGOR 

The text is that printed by Child (II, 221) from Alexan- 
der Eraser Tytler's Brown MS. There are thirteen versions 
of the ballad, which is otherwise known as Fair Isahell of 
Rochroyall, The Bonny Lass of Lochroyan, Lord Gregory, 
Fair A7iny, and The Lass of Aughrim. In one version 
(Child, II, 215) we have a chain of preliminary episodes in 
which Annie dreams of her lover, dresses herself like a prin- 
cess to go and find him, is directed to his castle by three 
robbers (?), and there meets with the reception from his 
mother that is described in the version here printed. A 
break, then, where some stanzas are probably lost, leaves us 
to conclude that she goes home and broods upon her de- 
sertion. Then the story continues with the opening ques- 
tions of our version. This form affords a good example of 
the ballad of two situations (see Gummere, The Foindaf 
Ballad, 90), which, while it is perfectly coherent, teases us by 
being a " continued story " instead of the single dramatic 
climax of a chain of incidents, which we may conjecture if 
we like but with which we expect the ballad to concern itself 
not at all. 

1. ivha IV III shoe my fu fair foot, etc. : in another 
version (Herd's MS.) the mother's anxiety is all for her 



126 NOTES 

little son, and the " my " of the first two stanzas becomes 
^'thy." 

4. And the king of heaven^ etc. : seldom does the incre- 
mental repetition of the ballad bring itself to so rich a climax. 

6. a bonny boat : how bonny is told in another version 
(Herd's MS.) : 

Then she 's gart build a bonny ship, 

It 's a' cored oer with pearl, 
And at every needle-tack was in, 

There hung a siller bell. 

But when the mother turns her away she sa3^s : — 

" Take down, take down that mast o gould. 
Set up a mast of tree ; 
For it dinna become a forsaken lady 
To sail so royallie." 

10. Aiva, awa^ ye ill woman : this is, of course, the voice 
of Love Gregor's mother. 

11. Rough Royal : Child says, " Roch- or Rough-Royal 
... I have not found ; but there is a Rough Castle in Stir- 
lingshire." 

14. O yours was good, etc. : Annie is not so gentle in 
other versions. In Fair Isabell of Rochroyall (Child, II, 
215) she says : — 

* ' Mine was of the massy gold. 
And thine was of the tin ; 
Mine was true and trusty both, 
And thine was false within." 

And here also further love-tokens seem to have been 
exchanged, Annie always getting the little end of the 
bargain : — 

" Have you not mind. Love Gregory, 
Since we sat at the wine. 
We changed the smocks off our two backs, 
And ay the worst fell mine ? 

" Mine was of the holland fine, 

And thine was coarse and thin ; 
So mony blocks have we two made, 
And ay the worst was mine." 



NOTES 127 

21. he has gone down, etc. : in other versions he sad- 
dles his steed to ride after Annie, but meets her dead body 
being carried to the church ; he rips open the winding sheet 
with his penknife, kisses her on cheek, chin, and lips until 
he knows she is dead, then stabs himself. 

25. Fair Annie's corpse lay at his feet : in Jamieson's 
Popular Ballads (Child, II, 220) he is more desperate and 
more heroic : — 

He saw his young son in her arms, 

Baitli tossed aboon the tide ; 
He wrang- his hands, than fast he ran, 

An plung'd i the sea sae wide. 

He catchd her by the yallow hair, 

An drew her to the strand, 
But cauld an stiff was every limb 

Before he reachd the land. 

28. wae betide, etc. : this last stanza is disappointing ; 
that of the version last quoted satisfies poetic justice 
better : — 

O he has mourned oer Fair Anny 

Till the sun was going down, 
Then wi a sigh his heart it brast, 

An his soul to heaven has flown. 



BONNY BARBARA ALLAN 

The text is that printed by Child (II, 276) from Ramsay's 
Tea-Table Miscellany. There are three versions of this bal- 
lad, which is also known as Barbara Allen's Cruelty and 
Barbara Allan. Child quotes (II, 276) an entry in Pepys' 
Diary speaking of his "perfect pleasure" in the "little 
Scotch Song " ; and Goldsmith's testimony (third essay, 
1765) that a dairy maid once sang him " into tears " with 
this song. We recall, also, in The Vicar of Wakefield: 
" These harmless people had several ways of being good 
company ; while one played the pipes, another would sing 
some soothing ballad, 'Johnny Armstrong's Last Goodnight ' 



128 NOTES 

or '• The Cruelty of Barbara Allen.' " Its lyric element is so 
strong that Child speaks of it as" a ballad or song ;'' and Gum- 
mere {The Popular Ballad^ p. 116) says: "This lyric im- 
pulse really creates a third class of ballads, just halting and 
trembling on the border of pure song. Here belong ' Barbara 
Allan ' and ' Lady Alice.' " The latter, which is a shadow 
of the former, may be found in Child, II, 279. The story is 
unusual in that it tells of a double fickleness. It suggests 
Burns's Duncan .Grey^ which, however, taking a whimsical 
view of the situation, could hardly sing one " into tears." 

1. Martinmas time: cf. note on The Wife of Usher's 
Well; a much more appropriate time for the gray sorrow 
of the story than the setting of another version {Roxburghe 
Ballads ) : — 

All in the merry month of May, 

When green leaves they was spring-ing. 

9. 0, mother^ mother^ etc. : before this stanza the version 
just quoted inserts : — 

She turnd herself round about, 

And she spy'd the corps a comhig : 
" Lay down, lay down the corps of clay, 
That I may look upon him." 

And all the while she looked on, 

So loudly she lay laughing. 
While all her friends cryd [out] amain, 

" Unworthy Barbara Allen ! " 

LAMKIN 

The text is that printed by Child (II, 321) from Jamie- 
son's Popular Ballads. There are twenty-six versions, some 
mere fragments, in which the hero's name appears variously 
as Lamkin, Linkin, Lamerkin, Lamerlinkin, Lankyn, Lon- 
kin, Lammikin, Lambkin, and even Rankin. But the story 
in all the versions is the same, — the revenge of the unpaid 
mason, — with varying degrees of cruelty. 

1. payment got he none: Child (II, 321) quotes from 



NOTES 129 

Motherwell : " Indeed, it seems questionable how some 
Scottish lairds could well afford to get themselves seated in 
the large castles they once occupied unless they occasionally 
treated^'the mason after the fashion adopted in this ballad." 
5. Bade his lady, etc. : as if he feared that Lamkin's 
threat would be carried out. 

7. slwt-windoio : sometimes a bow-window, sometimes a 
window turning outward and upward upon an upper hori- 
zontal hinge. In some versions the nurse does not let 
Lamkin in, but he finds for himself a " sma peep " or a 
"wee hole" or "one little window that was forgot," al- 
though the lord warned his lady not to leave a hole even 
" for a mouse to creep in." 

8. that ca me Lamkin: his contemptuous tone would 
seem to imply that he did not relish the nickname that 
jeered at his tame submission to his lord's tyranny. In 
truth, to be called " Lamkin " might stir up any man to 
revenge. 

11. hut IV e soon can bring her down: the torturmg ot the 
child is designed to bring the mother upon the scene where 
her own doom awaits her. 

12. a deep wound and a sair: other versions, equally 
distressing but less tragic, tell that the child is only pinched 
or pricked with a pin. 

16. still him ivi the wand, etc. : from the different 

versions we get a curious list of playthings that the mother 

suggests — wand, bell, keys, apples, pears, ring, kame, knife ! 

But the nurse's answer invariably is : — 

'* He winna still, lady, 

till ye come down yoursel." 

18, the firsten step she steppit, etc. : in one version 
(Motherwell's MS.) an interesting bit of ballad magic pre- 
cedes this stanza : — 

" It 's how can I come down, 
this cauld winter nicht, 
Without eer a coal, 

or a clear candle-licht ? " 



130 NOTES 

" There 's two smocks in your coffer, 
as white as a swan ; 
Put one of them about you, 
it will shew you licht down." 

The light reveals her clearly to Lamkin, and after he has 
cut off her head, — 

... he hung 't up in the kitchen, 
it made a' the ha shine. 

23. dowie, dowie was his heart, etc. : many points in the 
situation recall the return of Macduff after the murder of 
his wife and children. Cf. Macbeth, TV, ii. In the version 
just quoted Lord Wearie has a sign of the tragedy : — 

" I wish a' may be weel 

with my lady at hame ; 
For the rings of my fingers 
the're now burst in twain ! " 

26. sweetly sang the black-bird, etc. : this touch of 
serene nature as a foil to set off the blackness of death is 
almost modern. It is cause for rejoicing to find that, accord- 
ing to one of the versions in Motherwell's MS., Lord Wearie 
lures the mason and the nurse to him after the manner of 
their own cunning : — 

He sent for the false nurse, 

to give her her fee ; 
All the fee that he gave her 

was to hang her on a tree. 

He sent for Lamerlinkin, 

to give him his hire ; 
All the hire that he gave him 

Was to burn him in the fire. 



YOUNG WATERS 

The text is that printed by Child (II, 343) from Percy's 
Reliques, 1765. This is the only traditional version of the 
ballad. Motherwell frankly said that he could find no other. 
Buchan produced a version of thirty-nine stanzas, in which, 



NOTES 131 

says Child, everything that is not in this version "is a 
counterfeit of the lowest description." It was suggested by 
Aytoun that the story was actually connected with Scottish 
history, young Waters possibly being one of the nobles put 
to death by James I upon his return from England. Percy 
himself says : " It has been suggested to the editor that this 
ballad covertly alludes to the indiscreet partiality which 
Queen Anne of Denmark is said to have shown for the 
bonny Earl of Murray ; and which is supposed to have in- 
fluenced the fate of that unhappy nobleman." 

2. round tables : the student here has his choice of two in- 
terpretations. The " round tables " was a name for a game 
akin to backgammon ; and in the reign of Henry III the 
joust was often called "the round table game " because the 
knights who jousted together ate at a round table, which 
prevented all distinction of rank in the seating. 

4. siller-shod behind : cf . Lord Thomas and Fair Annet, 
stanza 16. 

6. lord, and I've sene laird: lord is the modern title; 
laird means merely a landowner. 

8. You We neither laird, etc. : a deft reply that is in 
striking contrast to many a blunt ballad answer in a delicate 
position. 

11. Stirling: a favorite residence of the Scottish sover- 
eigns, on the river Forth. These two stanzas, the eleventh 
and twelfth, are among the most effective death laments in 
all balladry. 

13. heiding-hill: a place of execution still called the 
" Heading Hill." 



THE GAY GOSS-HAWK 

The text is that printed by Child (II, 357) from the 
Jamieson-Brown MS. There are eight versions of the ballad, 
otherwise known as The Jolly Goshawk and The Scottish 
Squire. There are points of similarity between this and a 
French ballad in which the maid Isambourg, doomed to 



132 NOTES 

marry a husband of the king's choosing, plans with her 
lover to feign death and be carried to burial, from which he 
shall deliver her. This was printed in 1607, and the first 
appearance of the English ballad in print was in 1802. A 
number of continental ballads contain the two incidents of 
the girl's feigning death and of the birds carrying the mes- 
sage. In Willie's Lyke-Wake (Child, I, 250) we have a 
reversal of the situation, a man feigning death in order to 
capture his maiden when she comes to the wake. For other 
instances of birds who give information, see Young Hunting 
(Child, II, 144), Johnie Cock, and recall the possible pur- 
pose of the sending of the " seven living lavrocks " in Hind- 
horn. The substitution of a parrot in one version, Buclian's, 
says Child, " testifies to the advances made by reason among 
the humblest in the later generations." Buchan's belief was 
that a parrot was a " far more likely messenger to carry a 
love-letter." True, but such cold reason is death to a ballad. 
3. well sal ye my true-love ken: the directions are 
somewhat indefinite, since others' taste may not coincide 
with that of the prejudiced lover. 

13. Ye hid him hake, etc : in another version (Mother- 
well's MS.) she sends pledges of love along with her spirited 
orders : — 

" I send him the rings from my white fingers, 

The garlands off my hair ; 
I send him the heart that 's in my breast : 

What would my love have mair ? 
And at the fourth kirk in fair Scotland, 

Ye '11 bid him meet me there." 

14. She's doen her to her father dear: the version just 
quoted has here a long line of stanzas in which, with incre- 
mental repetition, she exacts similar promises from her 
mother, her sister, and seven brothers. Then an auld witch 
wife, as the maiden drops down dead, tries a test : — 

Says, Drap the hot lead on her cheek, 

And drop it on her chin, 
And drop it on her rose-red lips, 

And she will speak again : 



NOTES 133 

For much a lady young- will do, 
To her true-love to win. 

They draped the het lead on her cheek, 

So did they on her chin ; 
They drapt it on her red-rose lips, 

But they breathed none again. 

23. The tlther o needle wark : in Scott's version, 

And every steek that they pat in 
Sewd to a siller bell. 

26. Wi cherry cheeks, etc. : in some versions three kisses 
from her lover, in true fairy-story style, bring her to life. 

28. sound your horn : a triumphant taunt, equivalent to 
"you may go blow your whistle." 

THE THREE RAVENS and THE TWA CORBIES 

The text of the first is that printed by Child (I, 254) 
from Melismata, Mitsicall Phansies, London, 1611 ; the 
second (Child, T, 253) from Scott's Minstrelsy, where it 
was first printed. It is interesting to read the two ballads 
together, and a comparison is sure to rouse new admiration 
for the less known but more deserving The Three Ravens. 
Some critics consider The Twa Corbies a traditional form 
of The Three Ravens. Scott, however, calls it " a counter- 
part rather than a copy " ; Child says it sounds like a " cyni- 
cal variation of the tender little English ballad " ; Gummere 
{Old English Ballads, 336) mentions it as a possible par- 
ody, and {The Popular Ballad, 197) as a " cynical pend- 
ant." The Twa Corbies presents one of the typical bad 
wives of the ballad, which we see at their worst in The 
Baron of Brackley (Child, IV, 84) ; while The Three 
Ravens is unequalled in tenderness and beauty as a song of 
ballad true love at its best. 

SIR PATRICK SPENCE 

The text is that printed by Child (II, 17) from Percy's 
Reliques. There are eighteen versions of the ballad (some 



134 NOTES 

of them fragments), which is known by such other titles 
as Sir Anclro Wood, Skipper Patrick, Earl Patricke 
Spensse, Earl Patrick Graham. Sir Patrick Spence was 
first given to the world through Percy's Meliques, 1765, and 
this version, although one of the shortest, is poetically more 
perfect and impressive than the longer versions full of de- 
tail and circumstance. The ballad has a convincing note of 
historical reality, and it bears out fairly well the story of 
the marriage of Margaret, daughter of Alexander III, who 
was married to Eric, King of Norway, in 1821, and con- 
ducted thither to her husband by a retinue of knights and 
nobles, all of whom perished on the voyage home. Child, 
however, does not feel compelled to regard the ballad as his- 
torical, and points out (II, 19) that a strict accordance with 
fact would be almost a ground of suspicion, since " ballad 
singers and their hearers would be as indifferent to the 
facts as readers of ballads are now." Cf. also T. F. Hender- 
son on the ballad in his History of Scottish Vernacular 
Literature. Writing of the objective note in ballads. Gum- 
mere {The Popular Ballad, 333) says, "Eleven stanzas . . . 
tell without a trope, without conscious turn of phrase, without 
a suggestion of the wider world or of times past and to come, 
but in their own conventional leap-and-linger style, the story 
of ' Sir Patrick Spens,' the tragedy of his summons, his jour- 
ney and his end. This traditional bit of verse, smooth as it has 
grown, holds to the cumulative and undetached habit of genu- 
ine ballad style. From first to last it is at the heart of the 
action and never attempts to viewthat action, whether by stuff 
or by phrase, by figure or by comment, from without. It moves 
in a straight, if redoubled, line to the end, — the Scots lords 
lying at Sir Patrick's feet, half over to Aberdour, fifty 
fathoms under sea." See, also. Introduction, pp. xxvi-xxvii. 

1. Dumferling : Scott states that this town, about fifteen 
miles from Edinburgh, was a favorite residence of Alexander 
III, who is buried in the abbey there. 

3. braid letter : this may mean an open letter, or as Child 
points out from an analogous use of the word in other 



NOTES 135 

ballads, a letter so large that it needed to be folded flat and 
sealexl. 

3. W^as walking, etc : a traditional ballad way of omit- 
ting the relative. 

5. 2uha is this, etc. : in other versions Sir Patrick 
speaks with more feeling ; as in that of Herd's MSS. : — 

" wha is this has tald the king, 
Has takl the king- o me ? 
Gif I but wist the man it war. 
Hanged should he be." 

But in all versions, like the hero he is, he obeys orders 
unquestiouingly. 

5. time (?' the yeir: the ballad takes nature for granted, 
even when the terrors of the stormy season are a vital matter. 
In Motherwell's MS. (Child, II, 23) one may read all the 
details of the " cauld and watry wind," the " grumly sea," 
and the salt waves " in at our coat-neck and out at our left 
arm " ; and, reading, be convinced that they are but the arti- 
ficial touches of conscious composition. 

7. Late late yestreen, etc. : a touch of folk-lore here, as 
also in a stanza of warning found in the Harris MS. : — 

Then up it raise the raermaiden, 

Wi the comb an glass in her hand : 
Here 's a health to you, my merrie young men, 

For you never will see dry land." 

8. they swam aboone : the hats were floating about them 
in the sea. 

9. lang, lang, etc. : repetition throughout this ballad is 
so pervasive as not to escape one's interest. Concerning these 
two stanzas. Child writes : " It would be hard to point out in 
ballad poetry, or other, happier and more refined touches 
than the two stanzas . . . which portray the bootless waiting 
of the ladies for the return of the seafarers." 

11. halfowre to Aherdour : half way between Aberdour 
and the coast of Norway lies an island. Papa Stronsay, 
where is said to lie the grave of Sir Patrick Spence ; but, of 
course, the tradition is questionable. There is no question, 



136 NOTES 

however, as to the ballad-like simplicity and the beauty of 
the thought, " half way home." One version (Harris MS.) 
reports bits of wreckage floating home as evidence of the 
disaster : — 

There was Saturday, an Sabbath day, 

An Monnonday at morn, 
That feather-beds an silken sheets 

Cam floatia to Kinghorn. 

Sir Patrick Sj^e/ice is a convincing illustration of Gum- 
iiiere's statement that " Primitive ballads, however inade- 
quate they would seem for our needs, came from men who 
knew life at its hardest, faced it, accepted it, well aware that 
a losing fight is at the end of every march." 

THOMAS RYMER AND THE QUEEN OF ELFLAND 

The text is that printed by Child (I, 323) from Alexander 
Fraser Tytler's Brown MS. There are five versions, with 
one other title,' TJiomas the Rhymer. There is good evi- 
dence that Thomas the Rhymer was an actual person, 
Thomas of Erceldoune, living not far from Melrose in the 
thirteenth century, and venerated as a prophet and poet. It 
is said that even in the last century the rustic people in Scot- 
land preserved his sayings in the belief that they were in- 
spired by the fairies, witli whom he had lived a few years 
as a child. A fragmentary poem, Thomas of Erceldome, 
written down probably in the fifteenth century, tells how 
Thomas acquired his gift from the fairies. This, in turn, 
refers to an older story of Thomas and the YAi Queen, which 
is but another version of the romance of Ogier the Dane and 
Morgan the Fay. In this romance the ballad doubtless had 
its source ; it agrees with it in all essential points, and curi- 
ously enough in the particular of Thomas's taking the fairy 
to be the Virgin. By some authorities this is considered the 
oldest authenticated specimen of the romantic ballad. 

1. grassy bank : the Huntly Banks near Erceldoun. On 
their eastern slope a large stone marks the site of the Eildon 



NOTES 137 

tree where Thomas kissed the fairy. " The Eildon Tree . . . 
no longer exists ; but the spot is marked by a large stone 
called Eildon Tree Stone." — Scott. 

2. Hung fifty silver hells, etc. : jingling bells were often 
ascribed to fairies, as in Tarn Lin (Child, I, 340), stanza 
37: — 

About the middle o the night 
She heard the bridles ring- ; 
This lady was as glad at that 
As any earthly thing. 

Cf. also Lord Thomas and Fair Annet, stanza 17. 

4. After stanza 4 the story is made more complete by 
reading in these two stanzas from the version in Scott's Min- 
strelsy : — 

'* Harp and carp, Thomas," she said, 
" Harp and carp along wi' me : 
And if ye dare to kiss my lips, 
Sure of your body I will be." 

" Betide me weal, betide me woe. 

That weird shall never danton me." 
Syne he has kissed her rosy lips, 
All underneath the Eildon Tree. 

To kiss a fairy or a ghost always puts the mortals of the 
ballads into the power of the spirits of darkness. Child says : 
" In this matter there is pretty much one rule for all 'unco ' 
folk, be they fairies, dwarfs, water sprites, devils, or departed 
spirits, and, in a limited way, for witches too. Thomas, hav- 
ing kissed the elf queen's lips, must go with her." Cf. Sweet 
William's Ghost, stanza 4. 

7. For forty days, etc. : Gummere says (The Popidar 
Ballad, 329) : " The scant notes of true Thomas's journey 
through the other world are disappointing." ♦But it would be 
hard to match for suggestiveness this stanza with any other 
in the ballads, which usually dismiss nature with a word. 

9. 710, no, True Thomas, etc. : he who eats of the 
food of fairyland will never live to return to earth. So the 
queen has brought with her a loaf and a bottle of wine, for 
after serving her seven years Thomas must go back as pro- 
phet to his people. 



138 NOTES 

13. UUle leven : a reminder of Shakespeare's " primrose 
way to the everlasting bonfire." Cf. Macbeth, II, iii. 

16. True Thomas on earth teas never seen: " Popular tra- 
dition, as Sir Walter Scott represents, held that, though 
Thomas was allowed to revisit the earth after a seven-years' 
sojourn in fairyland, he was under obligation to go back to 
the elf queen whenever she should summon him. One day 
while he ' was making merry with his friends in the town of 
Erceldoune, a person came running in, and told, with marks 
of fear and astonishment, that a hart and hind had left the 
neighboring forest, and were composedly and slowly parad- 
ing the street of the village. The prophet instantly arose, 
left his habitation, and followed the wonderful animals to 
the forest, whence he was never seen to return.' He is, how- 
ever, expected to come back again at some future time." 
— Child. 

THE WEE WEE MAN 

The text is that printed by Child (I, 330) from Herd's 
Ancient and Modern Scottish Sonr/s. There are seven 
versions, the only varying title being The Little Man. 
" Singularly enough, there is a poem in eight-line stanzas 
(cf. Child, I, 333) in a fourteenth century manuscript, 
which stands in somewhat the same relation to this ballad 
as the poem of Thomas of Erceldoune does to the ballad 
of Thomas Rynier, but with the important difference that 
there is no reason for deriving the ballad from the poem in 
this instance. There seems to have been an intention 'to 
make it, like Thomas of Erceldoune, an introduction to a 
string of prophecies which follows, but no junction has been 
effected." — Child. Among ballads dealing with magic 
transformations and vanishings, Gummere speaks of The 
Wee Wee Man as a "charming study in miniature." 

1. As I was ivalcing all alone : cf . witli the first line of 
The Tiva Corbies. 

2. shathmont : six inches, or the measure from the top of 
the thumb extended to the opposite extremity of the palm. 



NOTES 139 

2. span : one version makes the Iiero still smaller : — 

Atween his shoulders was ae span, 
About his middle war but three, 

and another r^easurement was : — 

Atween his een a flea might gae. 

3. a meikle stane: "sax feet in hight," one of the ver- 
sions has it. 

8. Mij ivee wee man was clean awa : in other versions it 
is not the wee, wee man who vanishes alone, but the whole 
hall with the ladies ; in two, the ballad ends with the ladies' 
singing, " Our wee, wee man has been long awa" ; and one 
ends in still more conventional fairy style, with a beautiful 
weird touch at the end. 

Pipers were playing, ladies dancing. 
The ladies dancing, jimp and sma ; 
At ilka turning o the spring 

The little mon was wearin 's wa. {growing less and less) 

Out gat the lights, on cam the mist, 

Ladies nor mannie mair coud see. 
I turned about, and gae a look. 

Just at the foot o' Benachie. 

SWEET WILLIAM'S GHOST 

The text is that printed by Child (II, 230) from Herd's 
MSS., in which it is a continuation of Clerk Saunders, q. v. 
(Child, II, 158). There are seven versions of this ballad, 
which is also known as Marjorie and William and Sweet 
William and May Margaret. The story has many counter- 
parts among Scandinavian ballads in which, however, the 
lover returns for the definite purpose of chiding his betrothed 
for her grieving, which disturbs his repose. Cf. note on The 
Wife of Usher's Well ; and The Unquiet Grave (Child, II, 
236). The tale in its main outlines can be recognized in 
almost all European literatures, often in ballad form. It is 
the basis, for example, of Burger's Lenore. Often the lover 
comes for the maiden herself, as in the " blurred, enfeebled, 



140 NOTES 

and disfigured " Suffolk Miracle (Child, V, 58), rather than, 
as here, to claim simply her troth. 

I. A luat : I wot ; cf. note on / tuot, in Young Bicham. 
3. Till ye come with me, etc. : she does not understand 

yet that her lover is dead. 

5. a merry midd-larf: of doubtful meaning. Scott 
frankly changed it to " merry midnight." Kittredge, com- 
paring it with " O the young cock crew i the merry 
Linken" in one version of The Wife of Usher's Well, 
thinks that " midd-larf " may stand for some locality. 

6. Till ye tell me, etc. : in two other versions (Kinloch, 
and Ramsay) she makes the condition -. — 

Till ye tell me the pleasures o heaven, 
And the pains of hell how they be, 

or more simply : — 

Till you take me to yon kirk, 
And wed me with a ring'. 

9. stroked her troth : a bit of surviving folk-lore. It is 
probably akin to the old practice of getting rid of a disease 
by rubbing the sick part upon a tree or stick. Cf . The Broivn 
G^iVZ (Child, V, 167): — 

When she came to her love's bed-side, 

Where he lay dangerous sick, 
She could not for laughing stand 

Upright upon her feet. 

She had a white wand in her hand. 
And smoothed it all on his breast ; 
" In faith and troth come pardon me, 
I hope your soul 's at rest." 

In other versions Margret simply stretches out " her lilly- 
white hand " and gives back her troth. One varies it by 

Then she has taen a silver key, 

Gien him three times on the breast ; 

Says, There 's your faith and troth, Willie, 
I hope your soul will rest. 

II. lost the sight of him: as he sinks into his grave. 



NOTES 141 

The version in Jamieson's Popular Ballads has a good 
touch here : — 

O, bonny, bonny sang the bird, 

Sat on the coil o hay ; 
But dowie, dowie was the maid 

That followd the corpse o clay. 

13. There is room, etc. : in five of the seven versions this 
is denied — '* there is na room." 



THE WIFE OF USHER'S WELL 

The text is that printed by Child (II, 238) from Scott's 
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border^ 1802, as taken down 
from the recitation of an old woman residing near Kirkhill, 
in West Lothian. There are four versions, and the ballad is 
otherwise known as The Widow-Woman. In many ballads, 
particularly in The Unquiet Grave (Child, II, 234), we find 
voiced the popular belief that excessive mourning for the 
dead interfered with their rest. Thus a brother reappeared 
to his grieving sister and says, " Every tear that thou shed- 
dest falls on this dark shroud without drying, and every 
night they still more chill and encumber me " ; and a little 
child begs his mother to stop weeping, for, since he must 
carry all her tears in a large pitcher, his burden is so great 
that he cannot play with his comrades in Heaven. Possibly 
this is the motive of the sons in coming back to their mo- 
ther, — at least it is the only one that we can conjecture. 
But, as Child says, " supplying a motive would add nothing 
to the impressiveness of these verses. Nothing that we have 
is more profoundly affecting." It is useless to try to define 
the charm of this ballad ; perhaps it lies not only in the appeal 
of the material, but largely in the restraint of its expression, 
the words suggesting far more than they actually tell. 
Especially is this true of the last stanza. Guramere says 
{The Popular Ballad, p. 222) that " traditional verse of 
any land seldom rises to the height of our best ' supernatu- 
ral' ballad, 'The Wife of Usher's Well.'" 



142 NOTES 

2. They hadna been a week, etc. : the incremental repe- 
tition here, in so short a compass, gives an unusually strong 
effect. 

4. / wish, etc. : the evil wish is a stock incident in bal- 
lads, varying from the simple " and an ill death may he die" 
(Johnie Cock, stanza 10) to the elaborate recital of curses to 
be found at the end of Edward and The Cruel Brother. 
None of them is more solemn, however, than the impreca- 
tion here that storms " may never cease." 

5. Martinmass : the 11th of November. 

9. crew the red, red cock, etc. : this touch is reminiscent 
of Scandinavian mythology ; the crowing of the cock is 
often a warning from the other world. Cf . Sweet William'' s 
Ghost, stanza 5. Cf. also its use in Matthew xxvi, 74. 

11. The channerin worm doth chide: an alliteration that 
compares in unusualness with that in Lord Thomas and 
Fair Annet, stanza 8, line 4. 



KEMP OWYNE 

The text is that printed by Child (I, 309) from Buchan's 
Ballads of the North of Scotland. The same version is in 
Motherwell's Minstrelsy. There are three versions of the 
ballad, in one of which the title is varied to Kempion. Kemp 
Owyne is Owain, one of King Arthur's knights, whose his- 
tory may be read in Malory's Morte D' Arthur. The adven- 
ture here described, however, does not appear in Malory, 
but Professor Child says, " It is riot perhaps material to 
explain how Owain, the king's son Urien, happens to be 
awarded the adventure which here follows. It is enough 
that his right is as good as that of other knights to whom 
the same achievement has been assigned. . . . Owain's 
slaying the fire-drake who was getting the better of the lion 
may have led to his name becoming associated with the still 
more gallant exploit of thrice kissing a fire-drake to effect a 
disenchantment." The closest parallel to the story of the 
ballad is to be found in an Icelandic saga, in which a young 



NOTES 143 

girl Is transformed by her stepmother into a monster with 
the mane, tail, and hoofs of a horse, and is to be released 
only by the kiss of a king's son. His ordeal is shorter than 
Owain's, for he needs only to leap upon her neck, kiss her 
once, and catch the sword she promises to throw up to him. 
This undoes the spell, and the two are married at court. 
Disenchantment by a kiss is common in old tales ; the tripli- 
cation of the kiss here admits the increment and so makes 
good ballad material. See introduction, p. xxi. One feels, 
however, that, according to ballad ways, each of the talis- 
mans — the belt, the ring, and the brand — should have its 
own peculiar power instead of the general " drawn shall 
your blood never be." The kindred ballads, Allison Gross 
and The Laily Worm and the Machrel of the Sea should 
be read with this (Child, I, 313, 315). 

2. Craigy's sea : probably a slurring of " craig of the 
sea " ; Eastmuir craigs, Scott's version has it. 

7. Here is a royal belt, etc. : the stanza arrangement 
from this point to the end of the ballad is unusually inter- 
esting, making in stanzas 8 and 10 a refrain of stanza 6 
entire, and in stanzas 9 and 11 a perfect repetition of 
stanza 7, changing only the talisman, — incremental repeti- 
tion in its simplest form. With a structure like this before 
us we can clearly see how a ballad grew ; and nothing could 
be easier to remember — or harder to forget — than these 
singing lines. See Introduction, p. xxii. 

THE D^MON LOVER 

The text is that printed by Child (IV, 367) from Scott's 
Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, 1812. There are eight 
versions of this ballad, otherwise known as A Warning for 
3Iarried Women, The Distressed Ship-Carpenter, James 
Herris, The Carpenter's Wife, The Banks of Italy. The 
complete title of the first, the best preserved traditional ver- 
sion, sums up the whole story : " A Warning for Married 
Women, being an example of Mrs. Jane Reynolds (a West- 



144 NOTES 

country woman), born near Plymouth, who, having plighted 
lier troth to a Seaman, was afterwards married to a Car- 
penter, and at last carried away by a Spirit, the manner 
how shall be presently recited." From this older, homelier 
version, Scott's, as here given, has been "improved into 
some elegance " (Gummere's Popular Ballad, 215). Tlie 
title Doiinon Lover allows the hero all the scope he needs to 
play his magic .part in the magic story ; he may be first the 
mourning lover and then the cloven-footed Spirit of Ven- 
geance ; he may make his silken-sailed and golden-masted 
ships, manned by invisible mariners, sail serenely to music 
or sink into the sea at his stroke upon topmast and fore- 
mast ; and he may know all about the hills of heaven and 
the mountains of hell. Granted the tables turned, the woman 
instead of the man led away under a spell, there is much 
here to remind us of Thomas Rymer, especially stanzas 12, 
13, and 14, which in subject-matter parallel 13 and 14 here. 
12. On the hanks of Italy : in another version (Kinloch 
MSS.) a bit of' incremental repetition leads up to the final 
catastrophe : — 

She had na sailed a leag-ue, a league, 

A league but barely three, 
Till grim, grim grew his countenance. 

And gurly grew the sea. 

" O hand your tongue, ray dearest dear, 
Let all your follies abee ; 
I '11 show you whare the white lillies grow, 
In the bottom of the sea." 

15. He strack the top-mast lui his hand: in Mother- 
well's MS. version the last stanza reads. 

He took her up to the topmast high, 

To see what she could see ; 
He sunk the ship in a flash of fire, 

To the bottom of the sea. 

And another ending, in a fragment in Motherwell's Min^ 
strelsij, has a magic vanishing at the end that reminds us of 
the close of The Wee Wee Man : — 



NOTES 145 

They had not sailed a mile awa, 

Never a mile but four, 
When the little wee ship ran round about, 

And never was seen more. 



HUGH OF LINCOLN 



The text is that printed by Child (III, 243) from Jamleson's 
Popular Ballads. There are twenty-one versions, all known " 
as above, as Sir Hugh, or as The Jew's Daughter, with the 
exception of one copy obtained in New York (Newell's 
Games and Songs of Avierlcan Children), where the 
boy's name has become Harry Hughes and the Jew's 
daughter is the Duke's daugliter. The story of Hugh of 
Lincoln is told in the Annals of Waverley, 1255, by a 
contemporary writer; and it was repeated and enlarged 
upon by Matthew Paris, also writing contemporaneously. 
Briefly it is as follows : The Jews of Lincoln crucified there 
a boy named Hugh. The body when taken from the cross 
was thrown into the river to escape detection, but the right- 
eous water cast it up upon dry land. Earth also refused 
to cover it when it was buried, and finally it was thrown 
into a well. From thence it gave forth so beautiful a light 
and fragrance that the well attracted crowds, and those who 
looked in saw the body floating there, its hands and feet 
pierced and its head circled by a crown of thorns. From 
these marks the murder was clearly the work of the Jews. 
Miracles were performed for those who touched the holy 
body. The part played by the mother in the ballad is care- 
fully told by Paris. The reliability of these chronicles can- 
not be vouched for. Very likely the whole story was one of 
those fabrications used by the Christians in the Middle Ages 
to justify their persecutions of a much-wronged race. Child 
says (IV, 240) : " Of these charges in the mass it may 
safely be said . . . that tliey are as credible as the miracles 
. . . asserted to have been worked by the reliques of the 
young saint, and as well substantiated as the absurd sacri- 
lege of stabbing, baking, or boiling the Host . . . with which 



146 NOTES 

the Jews have equally been taxed." The ballad should be 
compared with Chaucer's Prioress's Tale ; nothing could 
show more clearly, as Professor Gummere points out ( The 
Popular Ballad^ 229), the difference between " artless and 
artistic narrative." 

1. came hhn: an old subject-dative, sometimes used with 
verbs of motion. 

5. For as ye did to my auld father : his reason in other 
versions is more boyish, such as, — 

" I canna cum, I darna cura. 
Without my play-feres twa." 

7. She 's led him in through ae dark door, etc. : this 
stanza and the next are a splendid example of incremental 
repetition reduced from stanzas to lines. 

8. A7id first came out the thick, thick blood : cf. a 
stanza, describing the bleeding of Robin, in an older version 
of Robin Hood' s Death than that printed in this volume : — 

And first it bled the thicke, thicke bloode, 

■ And afterwards the thinne, 
And well then wist good Robin Hoode 
Treason there was within. 

9. Cake : case. 

9. Our Lady's draiv-ivell: this may be a confusion of 
the story of Hugh with that of the little Christian in 
Chaucer's tale, where the child thrown into a })it was rescued 
by the Virgin, for all other versions of the ballad say simply 
"the Jew's Well." In one version of the ballad the Jew's 
daughter lays a Bible at the boy's head, and the Prayer 
Book at his feet before she kills him ; in another she leaves 
the Bible and Testament there after his death ; and in still 
another she jjlaced 

The Catechise-Book in his own's heart's blood. 

In other versions Hugh himself requests these, in one 
asking inconsiderately for a "seven foot Bible," and in an- 
other specifying from the bottom of the well that he shall 
have " pen and ink at every side." 



NOTES 147 

12. Gin ye he there, etc. : the pathetic note in the mother's 
repeated cry with its tinge of despair at the end, " Whereer 
ye be," may also have crept in from The Prioress's Tale, 
so similar are the two. 

17. And a' the hells, etc. : this is the only version that pre- 
serves this beautiful touch. 

YOUNG BICHAM 

The text is that printed by Child (1, 463) from the Jamie- 
son-Brown MS. There are fifteen versions of the ballad, 
which is known by various titles : Young Brechin, Young 
Bekie, Young Beichan and Susie Pye, The Loving Ballad 
of Lord Bateman, Young Bondwell, and Susan Py. The 
story of the ballad agrees in many respects with a legend of 
Gilbert Becket, father of the martyr, St. Thomas. In his 
youth, while fighting in the Holy Land, he was taken 
prisoner by a Saracen prince, and retained to wait upon 
him at meat. The daughter of the prince fell in love with 
him during these days of his servitude, and promised to re- 
nounce her own faith and turn Christian if he would marry 
her. In time, however, Becket escaped and made his way 
home. The princess followed him, but on her arrival found 
that the only English word she knew was " London." 
Wandering through the streets in the hope of finding Becket, 
she came one day upon his house, and he saw and recog- 
nized her. In his perplexity as to whether he should marry 
one of heathen religion he appealed to the conference of 
bishops then convened at St. Paul's. They sanctioned his 
wishes, and he married the Saracen's daughter. The ballad 
agrees with this story in several significant particulars, such 
as the formal introduction of the hero (cf. stanza 1), and the 
reversal of the conventional plot by which the hero returns 
home and forgets his foreign love instead of going abroad 
and forgetting the maiden left at home. There is a point 
also in the similarity between the names Becket and Bekie. 
But Child is careful to insist that, although the ballad 



148 NOTES 

is unmistakably affected by the legend, it is not necessarily 
derived from it, stories with this general outline being com- 
mon not only in English, but in Norse, Spanish, and Italian. 
The student will recognize the likeness between Young 
Bicliain and Hind Horn, allowing for the interchange of 
the principal characters. 

1. In London city, etc. : the ballad opens with a formal 
introduction and contains throughout bits of explanation 
that are wanting in the " ballads of situation." A compari- 
son of Babylon, pure situation, Hind Horn, retaining some 
of the explanatory narrative of the romance, and Young 
Bicham, which follows closely the whole romantic story, 
will show how the romantic ballad tended toward the char- 
acteristics of epic style. 

1. handled him right cruely : because he was a Christian. 
According to one version ( Jamieson's Popular Ballads) : — 

For he viewed the fashions of that land. 

Their way of worship viewed he, 
But to Mahound or Termag-ant 

Would Beichan never bend a knee. 

4. / ivot : the unexpected appearance of the personal- 
pronoun does not at all disturb the impersonal quality which 
belongs to the ballad. Compared, for example, with the vivid 
presence of the " I " of the lyric poem, this " I " really has 
no significance. Nor has the ''I "in The Twa Corbies, 
although it there pretends to have seen and heard all that 
is related. In stanza 11, here, the personal element is more 
distinct, perhaps, in " I hop this day she sal be his bride " ; 
but so hopes every one upon reaching this point in the story, 
and so the singer is after all but a representative voice. 

4. Shusy Pye : this is usually her name, but she is also, 
in three other versions, Isbel, Essek, and Sophia. 

9. Go set your foot, etc . : in Jamieson's Popular Ballads 
the following stanza appears at this point : — 

She 's broken a ring from her fing-er, 
And to Beichan half of it gave she : 
" Keep it, to mind you of that love 
The lady bore that set you free," 



NOTES 149 

and the incident closes much as in Hindhorn with, — 

And she has taen her gay gold ring, 
That with her love she brake so free ; 

Says, Gie him that, ye proud porter, 
And bid the bridegroom speak to me. 

An important incident, wanting in this version, is told in 
Young Bekie, Jamieson's Popular Ballads, as follows : — 

O it fell once upon a day 

Burd Isbel fell asleep, 
An up it starts the Belly Blin, 

An stood at her bed-feet. 

" 0, waken, waken, Burd Isbel, 
How [can] you sleep so soun, 
Whan this is Bekie 's wedding day, 
And the marriage gain on ? 

" Ye do ye to your mither's bower, 
Think neither sin nor shame ; 
An ye tak twa o your mither's marys, 
To keep ye frae thinking lang. 

" Ye dress yoursel in the red scarlet, 
An your marys in dainty green. 
An ye put girdles about your middles 
Woud buy an earldome. 

" ye gang down by yon sea-side, 
An down by yon sea-stran ; 
Sae bonny will the HoUans boats 
Come rowin till your ban. 

" Ye set your milk-white foot abord, 
Cry, Hail ye, Domine ! 
An I shal be the steerer o't 
To row you oer the sea." 

Child notes (I, 67) that in all the ballads (five) where the 
Belly Blin appears he is " a serviceable household demon ; of 
a decidedly benignant disposition in . . . four, and, though 
a loathly fiend with seven heads in [one], very obedient and 
useful when once thoroughly subdued." Cf. Gil Brenton 
(Child I, 73), stanza 35, and Willie's Lady (Child, I, 86), 
stanza 29. 



150 NOTES 

13. has he taen a honny bride, etc. : the version quoted 
above claims that Bicham was still faithful to his love : — 

He had nae been in 's ain country 

A twelvemonth till an end, 
Till he 's forced to marry a duke's daughter, 

Or than lose a' his land. 

" Ohon, alas ! " says young- Beckie, 
" I know not what to dee ; 
For I can no win to Burd Isbel, 
And she kensnae to come to me." 

16. The like of whom I did never see : the bride is here 
silently tolerant of the porter's uncomplimentary comparison, 
but in the version already quoted she is ready with reproof : — 

Then out it spake the bierly bride, 
Was a' goud to the chin ; 
" Gin she be braw without," she says, 
" We 's be as braw within." 

19. quickly ran he down the stair : his haste is more 
headlong in another version (Pitcairn's MSS.) : — 

It 's he 's taen the table wi his fist. 

And syne he took it wi his knee ; 
He gard the glasses and wine so red, 

He gard them all in flinders flee. 

23. changd her name : by the rite of Christian baptism. 



GET UP AND BAR THE DOOR 

The text is that printed by Child (V, 98) from Herd's 
Ancient and Modern Scots Songs, 1769. The story is cited 
by Professor Child as one of a group of tales, French, Italian, 
German, Arabian, Turkish, all of which turn upon a penalty 
for speaking first, agreed upon with varying circumstances 
between husband and wife. In this ballad, the compact is not 
a serious one nor one that involves serious consequences 
as in some of the tales. It is only a merry matrimonial jest, 
told with spirit and dash ; a genuine bit of healthy fun that 
sharply distinguishes this from some coarser stuff in the small 



NOTES 151 

group of humorous ballads wliich we have to draw from. 
Professor Child prints a refrain for this version, given by 
Christie as " common in the north of Scotland from time 
immemorial " : — 

And the barring- o our door, 

Weel, weel, weel ! 
And the barring o our door, weel ! 

1. puddings : white puddings are made chiefly of suet 
and oatmeal ; black puddings are mixed with blood. Both 
are in the form of sausages. 



THE BATTLE OF OTTERBURN 

The text is that printed by Child (IV, 499) from Scotch 
Ballads, Materials for Border Minstrelsy as communicated 
to Scott by James Hogg. (See Introduction, p. xl.) There 
are seven versions, some fragmentary, of this ballad. For this 
version Scott says he obtained two copies " from the recitation 
of old persons residing at the head of Ettrick Forest, by which 
the story is brought out and completed in a manner much more 
correspondent to the true history." The " copies " were really 
two letters from James Hogg containing twenty-nine stanzas 
"collected from two different people, a crazy old man and 
a woman deranged in her mind," whose memories failed at 
the most interesting points ; and a collection of lines, entire 
and broken, gotten by " pumping an old friend's memory." 
Out of these Hogg made eleven stanzas more, which are 
bracketed in the text. Lockhart (under July, 1831) records 
Scott's love for this ballad to the last days of his life : " It 
was again a darkish cloudy day, with some occasional mut- 
terings of distant thunder, and perhaps the state of the 
atmosphere told upon Sir Walter's nerves ; but I had never 
before seen him so sensitive as he was all the morning after 
this inspection of Douglas. He . . . chanted, rather than 
repeated, in a sort of deep and glowing, though not distinct 
recitative, his first favorite among all the ballads, — 



152 NOTES 

" It was about the Lammas tide, 

When husbandmen do win their hay, 
That the doughty Douglas bownde him to ride 
To England to drive a prey, — 

down to the closing stanzas, which again left him in tears — 

" My wound is deep — I fain would sleep — 
Take thou the vanguard' of the three, 
And hide me beneath the bracken-bush, 
That grows on yonder lily-lee." 

A circumstantial account of tliis battle, " best fought and 
the most severe," is given by Froissart, who learned his 
details first hand from the participants upon both sides. 
Briefly the facts are these : During the reign of Richard II, 
the Scots, in a spirit of retaliation, busied themselves with 
invading and ravaging the north of England. One division 
of their forces, under James, Earl of Douglas, in 1388 laid 
siege for three days to the walls of Newcastle. Here Douglas 
met Harry Percy, " Hotspur," in a single combat and bore 
away his lance and pennon with the taunt that he would raise 
the flag on the highest point of his castle at Dalkeith. Percy 
vowed that it should never be carried out of Northumber- 
land, and the Douglas's reply was, " Come then to-night and 
win it back ; I will plant it before my tent." Percy mustered 
his forces, gave chase to the Scottish army when they broke 
camp the next day, and, following up their rear closely, 
made a night attack upon them encamped at Otterburn, some 
twenty miles from their own frontier. The battle was fought 
in the dark, hand to hand, and stubbornly on both sides. 
The English were defeated and Percy was taken prisoner. 
The Scots also lost their leader, for, thirsting for glory, 
he seized a battleaxe, and shouting, " Douglas ! Douglas ! " 
forced his way into the heart of the enemy's ranks, where 
he was felled by three spear-strokes at once. His dying 
requests were : '' First, that yee keep my death close both 
from our owne folke and from the enemy ; then, that ye suffer 
not my standard to be lost or cast downe ; and last, that ye 
avenge my deatli, and bury me at Melrosse with my father. 



notp:s 153 

If I could hope for these things, I should die with the great- 
est contentment ; for long since I heard a prophesie that a 
dead man should winne a field, and I hope in God it shall 
be I." And the story goes, that over his stone tomb at Mel- 
rose was finally raised the Earl's banner. 

Child speaks of this as a " transcendently heroic ballad " ; 
and Gummere praises Otterburn and the Cheviot as rising 
from " the arid foothills " of battle ballads like " peaks of 
the Sierras." And commenting further upon its heroic spirit, 
the latter says {The Popular Ballad, 258 ff.) : " The chivalry 
lies here in facts. ... It is the chivalry and the sentiment 
of men-at-arms, if not of lofty knighthood itself, rather than 
the work of a professional song-writer . . . pouring out im- 
petuous scorn upon the foe. ... It is the spirit characteristic 
of fourteenth century Englishmen at their best, as history 
records it in Edward III with his sacred word of honor and 
his generosity to the captive, as Chaucer embodies it in his 
knight and his squire, and as Shakespeare, with amazing 
sympathy, has fixed it in his Hotspur, the Percy of these bal- 
lads." As to the origin of these ballads he writes (^ibid. 265, 
266): "For these two \_Otterburn and the Cheviot'] are 
chronicle ballads, — with emphasis on the chronicle. The 
fight of Otterburn was surely sung on both sides of the 
border, in hall, bower, and cottage, by the roadside, and at 
the dance ; but what we have in the two splendid poems 
about it seems to come to us, in stuff and spirit, from men- 
at-arms, — who, as the bishop testifies, could make and sing 
their ballads readily enough, — with more or less editing, 
recasting, and fresh phrasing by minstrels of varying de- 
gree. . . . They are ballads of fight, traditional but not pop- 
ular in the normal sense of the word. There is nothing 
choral or concerted or dramatic in them ; they seem to have 
been epic from the start. But it is useless to speculate on 
their far-off and conjectural making ; they are made, and, 
more to the purpose, have been kept ; they are to be taken 
as Dryden would have men take Chaucer, and one is glad 
enough to say that here is God's plenty." 



154 NOTES 

1. When the Tiiuir-tnen won their hay: again, a con- 
ventional statement of the season. 

1. doughty Earl Douglas : the glory of this house began 
in Scottish history with Sir James Douglas, one of the de- 
fenders of Bruce in the battle of Bannockburn. This ballad 
has throughout the epic way of naming single heroes for 
special praise. 

2. Gordons, Graemes, Lindsays, Jardines .: illustrious 
Scottish families. Evidently one of those petty feuds which 
were always breaking up the Scottish army kept the Jar- 
dines from sharing the glory of those who rose with the 
Douglas. 

3. T'me, the Tyne River, flowing through Northumber- 
land to the North Sea. 

3. Almonshire : Hosfj: wrote to Scott: " Almon shire 
may probably be a corruption of l^anbrugh shire [a castle- 
town overlooking the North Sea], but as both my relaters 
called it so, I thought proper to preserve it." 

4. Newcastle : the capital of Northumberland, on the 
Tyne : now the great coal port. 

5. Lord Piercy : Harry Hotspur, the son of the Percy 
of the Cheviot. This distinguished family traced its honors 
back to the day of William de Piercy, companion of Wil- 
liam the Conqueror. 

8. But hoiV2)ale, etc. : this stanza Child calls, "spurious, 
modern in diction and in conception." 

11. Otterhurn: a brook about twenty-five miles distant; 
the site of the battle is now marked by a monument. 

20. a dreary dream: dreams are not so common a 
means of warning in the ballads as are apparitions and nat- 
ural signs. For a similar incident, cf. Robin Hood and 
Guy of Gishorne, stanzas 3 and 4. This is perhaps the best 
known stanza of the whole ballad. 

20. Isle Sky : Skye is one of the Inner Hebrides off 
the west coast of Scotland. 

22. They swakked their swords, etc. : the abundant allit- 
eration in this ballad and in the Cheviot is one of the evi- 



NOTES 155 

dences that they did not spring from " simple countryside 
memory." 

24. Ily ain dear sister's son: cf. note on stanza 15, 
Johnie Cock. 

23. But Piercy ivi his good hroad-sword, etc. : Child 
thinks this stanza must be derived from the English ver- 
sion, as the flight of Douglas would be most repulsive to 
Scottish national feeling. 

37. But yield thee to the hreaken hush : Child's com- 
ment is : " The sunnnons to surrender to a braken-bush is 
not in the style of fighting-men or fighting-days, and would 
justify Hotspur's contempt of metre-ballad-mongers." See 
Introduction, p. xxxvii. 

38. / will not yields etc. : Hogg wrote to Scott, after 
this stanza : " Piercy seems to have been fighting devil- 
ishly in the dark ; indeed, my relaters added no more, but 
told me that Sir Hugh died on the field, but that " — as 
follows in stanza 40. The ending of Scott's earlier version 
was (Child, III, 301) : — 

As soon as he knew it was Montg-omery, 
He struck his sword's point in the gronde ; 

The Montgomery was a courteous knight, 
And quickly took him by the honde. 

This deed was done at the Otterbourne, 

About the breaking of the day ; 
Earl Douglas was buried at the braken-bush, 

And the Percy led captive away. 



CHEVY CHASE 

The text is that printed by Child (III, 311) from the 
Percy MS. There are two versions of this ballad, the older 
being known as The Hunting of the Cheviot. The histori- 
cal value of the story it tells and the relation it bears to the 
incidents told in The Battle of Otterhurn are subjects of 
dispute. Percy says very truly, " The only battle, wherein 
an Earl of Douglas was slain fighting with a Percy, was 



156 NOTES 

that of Otterbourne." Hume of Godscroft, as early as 1644 
(cf. Child, III, 303), disclaims all historic basis: "That 
which is commonly sung of the Hunting of Chiviot, seemeth 
indeed poeticall and a meer fiction, perhaps to stirre up 
vertue ; yet a fiction whereof there is no mention, neither in 
the Scottish nor English chronicle." Hale believes that 
" the ballad on the Hunting of the Cheviot, — borrowed 
largely from that on the Battle of Otterbourne, — was, in 
fact, in course of time believed to celebrate the same event." 
Child's (III, 304) conclusion is : " The differences in the 
story of the two ballads, though not trivial, are still not so 
material as to forbid us to hold that both may be founded 
upon the same occurrence, the ' Hunting of the Cheviot ' 
being of course the later version, and following in part its 
own tradition, though repeating some portions of the older 
ballad." (His further comparison of the two may be read 
in III, 304, 305.) 

But whatever their relationship, Hale's comment holds 
that " the two .ballads represent two different features of 
the old Border life — the Raid and the defiant Hunt." The 
enormity of hunting in another's territory can be appreciated 
only when we recall the strictness of the laws of the Marches, 
often renewed and faithfully enforced. So the boastful vow 
of the Earl of Northumberland that he would hunt at his 
pleasure for three days on forbidden ground was as good as 
a direct challenge. 

It was probably this ballad in an older version that called 
forth the praise of Sir Philip Sidney : " Certainly I must 
confesse my own barbarousness. I never heard the olde 
song of Percy and Duglas that I found not my heart 
mooved more then with a trumpet ; and yet it is sung but 
by some blinde crouder, with no rougher voyce then rude 
stile : which, being so evill apparrelled in the dust and cob- 
webbes of that uncivill age, what would it worke trymmed 
in the gorgeous eloquence of Pindar ! " With this version, 
also, Percy opened his Reliques with the comment that, 
" those genuine strokes of nature and artless passion, which 



NOTES 157 

have endeared it to the most simple readers, have recom- 
mended it to the most refined ; and it has equally been the 
amusement of our childhood, and the favorite of our riper 
years." Of our later version, which was probably the only 
one known to him, Addison wrote an appreciation in The 
Spectator, Nos. 70 and 74. He says, " The old song of 
Chevy-Chase is the favorite ballad of the common people of 
England, and Ben Jonson used to say he had rather have 
been the author of it than of all his works." 

1. God prosper long, etc. : this direct invocation im- 
presses us at once with the presence of the singer himself, — 
not, says Child, " a critical historian," but one who " sup- 
poses himself to be dealing with facts . . . and partial to 
his countrymen." 

2. Cheuy Chase : Chy viot in the older version changed 
easily to Cheuy or Chevy ; just as in stanza 14 Teviotdale 
became Tivydale. " Hunting ground upon the Cheviot 
Hills . . . Chase is thus shown to be the p)lciG& of hunting, 
not the act.^' — Skeat. 

5. present : immediate. 

14. Tiuydale . . . Tweed : the Teviot River flows into 
the Tweed, which forms a boundary between Scotland and 
England, emptying into the North Sea. 

17. milke-white steede : cf. " the milk white steed " of 
the Queen of Elfland, in Thomas Bymer, and " the milk- 
white han " in The Twa Sisters. " Milk-white" was a stock 
ballad epithet and an heroic color, even Robin Hood often 
being described by it. The single touch of description here 
is also the characteristic ballad way of giving a whole im- 
pression of splendor without any enumeration of detail. So, 
in Lord Thomas and Fair Aniiet, Annet's gown " skin- 
kled in their een " and " shimmered like the sun." 

23. Let thou and I the hattell trye, etc. : the setting is 
genuinely epic here, — the background of the two bodies of 
retainers and the contest of the leaders before their hosts. 

24. Henery our king: since the battle of Otterburn 
(1388) was fought in the reign of Richard II (1377-1400), 



158 NOTES 

Henry is a name simply chosen at random by the minstrel 
as a common king's name in England. 

25. That ere my captaine fought, etc. : cf. the parley 
between Robin Hood and Little John in Robin Hood and 
Guy of Gisborne, stanzas 8-10. 

31. Like lyons . . . like raine: these, and others through- 
out these stanzas, are conventional ballad similes, bare of 
any attempt at heightening the style. 

33. James our Scottish king: James I was not born 
until 1394, six years after Otterburn ; but Bishop Percy 
said : " A succession of two or three Jameses, and the long 
detention of one of them in England, would render the name 
familiar to the Elnglish and dispose a poet in those rude times 
to give it to any Scottish king he happened to mention." 

35. I tvill not yeelde to any Scott, etc. : there is a sug- 
gestion here of Macbeth's boast to Macduff : — 

But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn, 
Brandish'd by man that 's of a woman born. V, vii. 

Still closer is the parallel in the old version, which reads : — 

" Nay," sayd the Lord Perse, 
" I tolde it the beforne, 
That I wolde neuer yeldyde be 
to no man of a woman born." 

38. Then leaning liffe, etc. : " That beautiful line taking 
the dead man by the hand will put the reader in mind of 
^neas's behavior towards Lausus, whom he himself had 
slain as he came to the rescue of his aged father." Addi- 
son, The Spectator, No. 70. Gummere speaks of this pas- 
sage as one that " breathes a spirit as noble as Sidney's 
own knighthood, and must have delighted his soul." The 
following stanza is a disappointing anti-climax, but one gets 
used to such naive slips in ballad poetry. 

46. The grey-goose-ivinge, etc. : this thought " was never 
touched by any other poet, — and is such an one as Avould 
have shined in Homer or in Virgil." Addison, The Specta- 
tor, No. 74. 



NOTES 159 

48. Sir John of Egerton, etc. : it is possible to identify 
all these heroes, but as with " the muster-rolls " of Milton's 
'' charmed names " the charm is in listening to their sound. 

50. For ivhen his leggs ivere smitten of, etc. : Child cites 
(III, 306 ; IV, 502 ; V, 298) other incidents parallel to 
this- 

52. his sister's sonne tvas hee: cf. Johiie Cock, stanza 
15, and Otterburn, stanza 24. Cf. also Gummere on The 
Sister s Son in An English Miscellany. 

62. after on Humhle-downe : " The singer all but startles 
us with his historical lore when he informs us . . . that King 
Harry the Fourth ' did the battle of Hombylldown ' to re- 
quite the death of Percy ; for though the occasion of Hom- 
ildon was really another incursion on the part of the Scots, 
and the same Percy was in commancrof the English who 
in the ballad meets his death at Otterburn, nevertheless the 
battle of Homildon was actually done fourteen years subse- 
quent to that of Otterburn and fell in the reign of Henry 
Fourth." — Child. It is, of course, a ballad liberty — to 
assign the cause of the battle of Homildon to the results of 
the Percy's defiance. The battle was fought in 1402, and 
the English under the lead of Northumberland and Hotspur 
defeated the Scots under Archibald, Earl of Douglas, cousin 
of James, Earl of Douglas, killed at Otterburn. 

64. God saue our kiiig^ etc. : concerning the presence 
of the minstrel in his song, already noted in the invocation, 
Gummere says {The Fopiilar Ballad, 260): "Judging 
them, then, by their tone, these ballads spring originally 
from fighting men of the better sort, and suggest the old 
songs of warriors by warriors and for warriors which one 
guesses in the background of epic. Precisely, too, as the 
nobler sort of rhapsode or professional poet worked old im- 
provisations into epic shape without impairing their note of 
simple and hardy courage, so a border minstrel of whatever 
time has surely laid his hand upon the original form of these 
stirring verses." 



160 NOTES 



JOHNIE ARMSTKONG 

The text is that printed by Child (III, 367) from Wit 
Restored in severall Select Poems not formerly ptihlisht, 
London, 1658. There are three versions, and the ballad is also 
known as Johnie Armsti'onffs Last Good-Night. Cf. intro- 
ductory note on Bonny Barbara Allan. The Armstrongs 
were an important family in Liddesdale in the fourteenth 
and following centuries, and in their lawlessness doubtless 
as troublesome to their own king as to the English. John 
Armstrong early in the sixteenth century built for himself 
a tower stronghold, called Gilnockie, on the Esk River. In 
1530 James the Fiflji levied an army to reduce the outlaws 
on his borders, and among them captured and hanged John 
Armstrong. Lindsay's Cronicles of Scotland corroborate 
the ballad in asserting that Armstrong was captured by 
strategy and hanged without a hearing. Child quotes (III, 
364, 365) from the Cronicles as follows : " So when he 
entered in before the king, he came very reverently, with 
his foresaid number very richly appareled, trusting that in 
respect he liad come to the king's grace willingly and vol- 
untarily, not being taken nor apprehended by the king, he 
should obtain the more favor. But when the king saw him 
and his men so gorgeous in their apparel, and so many 
braw men under a tyrant's commandment, throwardlie he 
turned about his face, and bade take that tyrant out of his 
sight, saying, What wants yon knave that a king should 
have ? But when John Armstrong perceived that the king 
kindled in a fury against him, and had no hope of his life, 
notwithstanding of many just and fair offers which he offered 
to the king . . . [he] said very proudly, I am but a fool to 
seek grace at a graceless face. But had I known, sir, that 
ye would have taken my life this day, I should have lived 
upon the borders in despite of King Harry and you both ; 
for I know King Harry would down weigli my best horse 
with gold to know that I were condemned to die this day. 



NOTES 161 

So he was led to the scaffold, and he and all his men 

hanged." 

1. Westmerland : since Westmoreland is an English 
county, this is, of course, an error, to be accounted for 
partly by the fact that this is an EngUsh ballad, and perhaps 
by Professor Child's explanation that Armstrong lived in 
the West March. 

1. eight score men in his hall : the account of Armstrong 
in Anderson's (c. 1618-35) History (cf. Child, III, 365) 
says : " The English people was exceeding glad when they 
understood that John Armstrong was executed, for he did 
great robberies and stealing in England, maintaining twenty- 
four men in household every day upon reiff and oppression." 

2. milke-ichite : cf . note on stanza 17, Chevy Chase. 

4. The king he writt an a letter then : cf stanza 3, Sir 
Patrick Spence. 

7. Everijwonofijou shall have, etc. : an unusual amount 
of detail for ballad description. Gummere says {The Popu- 
lar Ballad, 308) : " This care for details leads away from 
balladry, and points, though from remote distance, to 
Chaucer." 

8. ten of the clock: there is a dramatic power in these 
statements of time. Note here the repetition of the first 
line of stanza 8 ; note also in Chevtj Chase, stanza 3, hne 
4; stanza 7, line 3. 

11. Good Lord, what a grevious look looked hee ! : in 
lines like this and line 4, stanza 8, we feel the clan grief 
voiced in the minstrel. 

11. Asking grace of a graceles face: this memorable 
line also occurs in the ballad of Mary Hamilton, see Child 
(III, 389). It is one of the instances where the verbal repe- 
tition characteristic of primitive poetry is peculiarly im- 
pressive. . . 

14. faire Eddenhurrough rose: another version is a little 

stronger on this point : 

But then rise up all Edenborough, 
They rise up by thousands three. 



162 NOTES 

13. Fight on, Tny merry men all, etc : there are few so 
spirited battle calls in all the ballads. Gummere says {The 
Popular Ballad, 37) : " Doubtless all these might be traced 
back to the improvised boat-song of the Germanic clans- 
man in hall or camp, at the feast before the fight, with a re- 
frain of his comrades, truci cantu, as Tacitus calls it, a wild 
choral ringing through woods and hills to the amazement of 
the silent Roman legions." 

17. Newes then was brought to young lonne Armestrong : 
*' Not infrequently, in popular ballads, a very young (even 
unborn) child speaks, by miracle, to save a life, vindicate 
innocence, or for some other kindly occasion ; sometimes 
again to threaten revenge, as here." — Child. Cf. Edom 
Gordon, stanza 19; and Scott, The Lay of the Last Min- 
strel, Canto First, ix, — 

Until, amid his sorrowing- clan, 

Her son lisped from the nurse's knee, 
" And if I live to be a man, 

My father's death revenged shall be ! " 

Gummere's discussion of the ballad coronach and the ballad 
good-night will be found suggestive here. See The Popular 
Ballad, 207-215. 

CAPTAIN CAR 

The text is that printed by Child (III, 430) from a 
British Museum manuscript of the last of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, a date very near that of the event recounted. There 
are nine versions of the ballad, one of them known as The 
Burning o Loudon Castle and others as Edom o Gordon. 
The ballad rests upon historical fact. Adam Gordon was 
deputy-lieutenant for Queen Mary in the north of Scotland 
in 1571, and so came into collision with the Forbeses, who 
supported the king's party. Gordon seems to have been 
usually successful in these encounters, but, in the words of 
the contemporary History of King James the Sixth, " what 
glory and renown he obtained of these two victories was all 
cast down by the infamy of his next attempt ; for immedi- 



I 



NOTES 163 

ately after this last conflict he directed his soldiers to the 
castle of Towie, desiring the house to be rendered to him 
in the queen's name ; which was obstinately refused by the 
lady, and she burst forth with certain injurious words. And 
the soldiers being impatient, by command of their leader, 
Captain Ker, fire was put to the house, wherein she and the 
number of twenty-seven persons were cruelly burnt to the 
death." Child notes (III, 425) that it is more probable 
that Captain Ker burnt Towie while executing a general 
commission to hang the Forbeses than that this house 
should have been made a special object. But whether this 
were so or not, it is evident from the terms in which the 
transaction is spoken of by contemporaries, who were famil- 
iarized to a ferocious kind of warfare, that there must have 
been something quite beyond the common in Captain Ker's 
proceedings on this occasion, for they are denounced even 
in these days as infamous, inhuman, and barbarously cruel, 
and the name of Adam Gordon is said to have been made 
odious by them." Elsewhere in the chronicles, he is re- 
ported for signal instances of humanity. Where Otterhurn 
and Chevy Chase are international in their interest, this 
ballad is purely domestic, and presents all the virtues which 
go to make the ballad ideal of true wifehood. 

1. At Martynmas : a conventional calendar opening, like 
that of Otterhurn^ or Bonny Barbara Allan. 

1. go take a holde : look for a stronghold for the winter. 

2. Wether you will, etc. : equivalent to the deferential 
" we will go where you please." 

3. / knowe ivher, etc. : here speaks Captain Car. 

4. to the towne : simply an inclosed place. 

10. I will not geue ouer my hous, etc. : the spirit of 
these lines is what " awoke an admiring response in the 
ballad world." The pictures of Lady Hamilton in these 
stanzas and in stanza 4 touch as quickly. 

14. That he would saue my eldest sonne ; a demand of 
extremity as she finds herself hard pressed. 

21. Johji Hamleton: the false steward, a former ser- 



164 NOTES 

Vcant, here reminds me of the false " nourice " in Lamkin. 
*' The making Gordon burn a house of the Hamiltons, who 
were of the queen's party, is a heedless perversion of his- 
tory such as is to be found only in ' historical ' ballads." — 
Child. 

23. are in close : in a narrow place. 

24. Lord Hamleton : this is, of course, confusion for one 
of the Forbeses. 

28. so quite : Gummere suggests the addition of away. 

THE BONNY EARL OF MURRAY 

The text is that printed by Child (III, 447) from Ram- 
say's Tea-Table Miscellany, 1750. There are two versions 
of the ballad, which is printed in numerous collections. 
James Stewart, the hero, became Earl of Murray by his 
marriage with the oldest daughter of the Regent Murray. 
The contemporary History of King James the Sixth, 
already quoted, says, " He was a comely personage, of a 
great stature, and strong of body like a kemp." He was 
suspected of being among the followers of Bothwell in the 
assault upon Holyrood House, 1591, and the Earl of Huntly, 
his enemy, persuaded the king to let him seize Murray and 
bring him to trial. He came upon him at the castle of his 
mother, the Lady Doune, and fired the house. The earl 
endured the smoke longer than the other inmates, but 
finally, under cover of the night, left and ran through his 
enemies to a hiding-place in tlie rocks. Here he would have 
been safe had not the tip of his lieadpiece taken fire before 
he left the house, and revealed his position to his pursuers. 
The clamors of the people were so loud against the outrage, 
that the king, even, dared not stay in Edinburgh, but be- 
took himself to Glasgow. Huntly went unpunished, either, 
as Child suggests, because the king really believed in the 
earl's guilt, or because, according to James Balfour, "the 
queen, more rashly than wisely, some few days before had 
commended [Murray] in the king's hearing, with too many 



NOTES 165 

epithets of a proper and gallant man." Like parts of Sir 
Patrick Spence (cf. stanzas 9, 10) or Johnie Armstrong 
(stanzas 11-13, 16), the ballad is of the coronach type, but 
is peculiarly interesting for the complete detachment of the 
narrative from the situation, and for the intensity of the 
choral grief. 

1. Ye Highlands, and ye Lawlands: the line wakes 
echoes of Burns's " Ye banks and braes o' bonnie Doon." 

1. layd him on the green : the body of the earl lay un- 
buried for several months in the church at Leith, waiting 
for his murder to be avenged. 

2. Noio wae he to thee, Huntly, etc. : this is spoken by 
the king. In one version (Finlay's Scottish Ballads) Huntly 
is represented as the brother of the Countess of Murray, 
and the ballad opens : — 

"Open the gates, 

And let him come in ; 
He is my brother Huntly, 
He '11 do him nae harm." 

3. rid at the ring : in this game one rode at full speed 
and tried to carry off on the point of his lance a ring sus- 
pended from some slight support. 

5. playd at the glove : probably, a similar game in which 
a glove takes the place of the ring. 

6. Castle Doun : one of the seats of the Earls of Murray. 

KINMONT WILLIE 

This is printed by Child (III, 472) from Scott's Min- 
strelsy of the Scottish Border, the only version. Scott says, 
" This ballad is preserved by tradition in the West Borders, 
but much mangled by reciters, so that some conjectural 
emendations have been absolutely necessary to render it in- 
telligible." How much of its form is due to Scott, and how 
much to tradition, it is impossible to say. Child (III, 472) 
says : " It is to be suspected that a great deal more emenda- 
tion was done than the mangling of reciters rendered abso- 



166 NOTES 

lately necessary," and he clamors for stanzas 10-12 and 31 
in their mangled state. Kittredge (Introduction to Cambridge 
Edition of Child's English and Scottish Ballads, xxix, xxx) 
says : " The traditional ballad appears to be inimitable by 
any person of literary cultivation, and we may feel grateful 
to those poets and poetasters who have tried their hands at 
it, for their invariable failure is one of the strongest proofs 
— amounting almost to demonstration — that there is a 
difference between the ' poetry of the folk ' and ' the poetry of 
art.' A solitary, though doubtful, exception is ' Kinmont 
Willie,' which is under vehement suspicion of being the 
work of Sir Walter Scott. Sir Walter's success, however, 
. . . would only emphasize the universal failure. And it 
must not be forgotten that ' Kinmont Willie,' if it is to be 
Scott's work, is not made out of whole cloth ; it is a working- 
over of one of the best traditional ballads known (' Jock o' 
the Side'), with the intention of fitting it to an historical 
exploit of Buccleuch's. Further, the exploit itself was of 
such a nature that it might well have been celebrated in a 
ballad, — indeed, one is tempted to say that it must have 
been so celebrated. And finally. Sir Walter Scott felt to- 
wards ' the Kinmont,' and the ' bold Buccleuch ' precisely as 
the moss-trooping author of such a ballad would have felt. 
For once, then, the miraculous happened, and, when we 
study the situation, we perceive that, for this once, it was 
not so great a miracle after all." 

The exploit recounted in the ballad is, briefly, as follows : 
William Armstrong, of the same family as the hero of 
Johnie Armstrong, was captured for freebooting by the 
English about 1596 and imprisoned in Carlisle Castle. Sir 
Walter Scott, laird of Buccleuch, tried to obtain his release 
from Sakeld, the representative of Lord Scroop, warder of 
the West Marches ; and this failing, from Queen Elizabeth 
herself. But his appeals being refused, he set out for 
Carlisle in April with two hundred horsemen, made a 
breach in the castle walls, entered and captured the watch- 
men, and set the prisoner free. Scroop and Sakeld were 



NOTES 167 

both sleeping in the castle, and Willie, as he leaves them, 
calls back a satirical good-night. The Scots were pursued 
to the river Eden, but the flooded banks checked their ene- 
mies there, and their escape was assured. 

1. Hairibee : the place of execution near Carlisle. 

3. Liddel-rack : a ford in the river Liddel. 

6. take farewell o me ; as he did, most effectively, in 
stanza 38. 

13. were there war, etc.: since there was not, he was 
most careful in taking the castle " to have it seen," says the 
old chronicle, "that he did intend nothing but the re- 
paration of his majesty's honor," no one was injured and no 
booty was taken. 

19. broken men : outlaws. 

19. Woodhouselee : Buccleuch's house on the Border. 

20. 'Bateable Lands : Debateable Lands, a tract on the 
western border, parted between England and Scotland. 

24. Dickie of Dryhope : also an Armstrong. 
26. meikle of spait: overflooded : one recalls Tennyson's 
lines where Gareth 

in a showerful spring- 
Stared at the spate. — Gareth and Lynette. 

30. upon the lead : the leaden roof. 

31. whae dare meddle wi me : a famous Liddesdale 
song. 

40. mony a time, etc. : humor " lifts its head " as un- 
expectedly here as in the straits of the Robin Hood ballads. 
Gummere says of this ballad {The Popular Ballad, 251), 
" One seems to be reading something like a dramatic lyric 
of Browning, with moss troopers instead of the old cavalier 
and without 'my boy George,' but all done to the life." 

BONNIE GEORGE CAMPBELL 

The text is that printed by Child (IV, 143) from Smith's 
Scottish Minstrel. There are four versions of this ballad, 
which is also known as Bonnie James Campbell. Of the 



168 NOTES 

identity of the hero Child says (IV, 142) : " Campbells 
enow were killed, in battle or feud, before and after 1590, 
to forbid a guess as to an individual James or George 
grounded upon the slight data afforded the ballad." It is a 
genuine bit of choral grief with a wonderfully strong singing 
quality, and the lament of the " bonnie bryde " in stanza 4 
is close to the " articulate cry " of the poet in the more 
modern lyric of grief. 

THE DOWY HOUMS O YARROW 

The text is that printed by Child (IV, 168) from Scotch 
Ballads^ Materials for Border Minstrelsy, as given in the 
handwriting of James Hogg. There are nineteen versions, 
including several fragments ; and the ballad is also known 
as The Braes of Yarrow, The Dowie Dens or Banks of 
Tarroiu and the Yetts of Goivrie. Hogg, sending the ver- 
sion to Scott, wrote as follows (cf. Child, IV, 163) : " Tra- 
dition placeth the event on which the song is founded very 
early. That the song hath been written near the time of the 
transaction appears quite evident, although, like others, by 
frequent singing the language is become adapted to an age 
not so far distant. The bard does not at all relate particu- 
lars, but only mentions some striking features of a tragical 
event which everybody knew. . . . The hero of the ballad 
is said to have been of the name of Scott, and is called a 
knight of great bravery. He lived in Ettrick . . . but was 
treacherously slain by his brother-in-law as related in the 
ballad, who had him at ill will because his father had parted 
with the half of all his goods and gear to his sister on her 
marriage with such a respectable man. The name of the 
murderer is said to be Annand, a name I believe merely 
conjectural from the name of the place where they are said 
both to be buried, which at this day is called Annan's Treat, 
a low muir lying to the west of Y^arrow church, where two 
huge tall stones are erected, below which the least child that 
can walk the road will tell you the two lords are buried that 



NOTES 169 

were slain in a duel." Scott believed that the ballad referred 
to the killing of Walter Scott of Tusliielaw in 1616 ; but 
Child's comment is that " there is nothing in the ballad to 
connect it preferably with the Scotts ; the facts are such as 
are likely to have occurred often in history, and a similar 
story is found in other ballads." 

Like The Cruel Brother, this is a story of a brother's ven- 
geance, except that here the brother spares the woman and 
slays the man ; and in all the versions there is evidently a 
settled enmity between the family of the lady and that of 
the knight ; evidently, from stanza 13, the former believed 
the heir an inferior match. 

1. Late at een, etc. : in other versions the quarrel, which 
here seems unaccountable, is over a dispute as to who is " The 
Flower of Yarrow," and the knight's assertion that it is his 
own lady. 

2. My cruel brother will you betray : her suspicion is 
justified by the meeting of her husband, in stanza 5, with 
the armed men, who would never have been stationed in 
" the dowy houms o Yarrow " by mere chance. 

2. Yarroiu : the romantic beauty of the stream, as well - 
as the poetic beauty of its name, has made it famous in 
poetry. Wordsworth alone, in Yarrow Visited, Yarrow Un- 
visited, Yarrow Revisited, would have made it immortal. 
Half of the beauty of the ballad is in the melodious echo of 
the name of the river from stanza to stanza. 

3. Ofare ye weel, etc.: the gallant confidence that has 
always tempted the gods. 

6. ir ye come, etc. : stanza 6 is spoken by the armed 
men, and 7 is the knight's retort. 

8. Stubborn : in the sense of fierce, unappeasable. 

9. good brother: -i. e. brother-in-law. Either he took no 
part in the fight, since all the assailants were killed or 
wounded ; or he is himself "that stubborn knight." 

10. Yestreen I dy^eamed, etc. : Percy's version of the bal- 
lad opens with this dream : — 



170 NOTES 

*' I dreamed a dreary dream this night, 
That fills my heart wi sorrow ; 
I dreamed I was pouing- the heather green 
Upon the hraes of Yarrow." 

10. Pu'd the heather green : Child (II, 181, 182) quotes 
Kinloch as saying that green is considered unlucky in love 
affairs ; one couplet running, — 

Green is love deen, 
Yellow 's forsaken, 
and another, — 

They that marry in g-reen, 
Their sorrow is soon seen. 

In one version of Loi^d Thomas and Fair Annet, Annie 

says : — 

" I '11 na put on the grisly black, 
Nor yet the dowie g-reen." 

Gummere (The Popular Ballad, 121) speaks of a color 
scheme for designating the different relatives, green being 
the color for the death of a brother. This may apply here, 
since some versions specify all the slain and wounded as 
Sarah's brothers, although only the loss of her husband is in 
her mind here. The version printed by Herd follows here 
with a beautiful, although somewhat conscious, stanza : — 

" gentle wind, that bloweth south, 
From where my love repaireth, 
Convey a kiss from his dear mouth, 
And tell me how he fareth ! " 

15. Take hame your ousen : " This I conceive to be an 
interpolation by a reciter who followed the tradition cited 
from Hogg." — Child. 

JOHNIE COCK 

The text is that printed by Child (III, 3) from the 
Percy Papers, Miss Fisher's MS., 1780. There are thirteen 
versions of this ballad, which is also known as Johnie of 
Cocker slee, Johnie o Cocklesmuir, Johnie of Breadislee, 
Johnrde Brad, Johnie of Braidlshank. " The first notice 



NOTES 171 

in print of this precious specimen of the unspoiled tradi- 
tional ballad,'" says Child (III, 1) "is in Ritson's Scotish 
Song, 1794. . . . Scott, 1802, was the first to publish the 
ballad, selecting ' the stanzas of greatest merit ' from several 
copies which were in his hands." To this version Scott 
gave the title, Johnie of Breadislee. All versions of this 
" greenwood ballad " agree in the main points of the story, 
and the character of the outlaw hero, but differ widely as 
to the scene. As Gumraere says, however, " the localities 
. . . import little or nothing." 

1. Were hound in iron bands : i. e. were kept from 
hunting by the game laws. The refrain here may be re- 
garded as proof of the age of this version. Repeating the 
last word of the third line, and the whole of the fourth line, 
after the form printed in the first stanza, will give the sing- 
ing quality which is the ballad's right. 

2. Care-bed she has taen : she is sick-a-bed of her 
anxiety. 

4. Lincoln green : for protective coloring. " Old things 
and new jostle each other in ' Johnie Cock ' ; wolves roam 
about, and birds give information, . . . Johnie himself . . . 
wears not only Lincoln green, but ' shoes of the American 
leather.' " — Gummere, The Popular Ballad, 267. 

5. bent bow : the alliteration throughout the ballad is 
noticeable, although there is here nothing quite so striking 
as a line in the version of Motherwell's Minstrelsy : — 

And he is awa to Braidisbanks, 
To ding the dun deer down. 

But all these alliterations are more a matter of traditional 
phrasing than of conscious composition. 

8. three quarters : of a yard. Even in this small collec- 
tion, the reader is convinced by this time that the pen- 
knife is a ballad commonplace. When only " three quarters " 
long, it is always '• wee." 

15. sister's son: Gummere says {The Popular Ballad, 
183), "The ballads have preserved some remarkable traces 
of the precedence of a sister's son over a man's own son, a 



172 NOTES 

condition which was noted by Tacitus among the ancient Ger- 
mans, and is the subject of considerable comment by eth- 
nologists who find it still surviving among barbarous nations 
and savage tribes." Cf. Chevy Chase, stanza 52 and note ; 
Otterhurn, stanza 24. 

17. The wildest wolf, etc. : What expression of Johnie's 
wrath at the cowardly attack upon him could be more im- 
pressive than this ? 

18. bows of yew, etc. : the internal rhymes in this 
stanza are wonderfully musical. 

20. Is there never a hoy : Child thinks this undoubtedly 
a corruption for the bird of all the other versions. So in 
Scott's version : — 

" O is there na a bonnie bird 
Can sing as I can say, 
Could flee away to my mother's bower, 
And tell to fetch Johnie away ? '' 

The starling flew to his mother's window-stane^ 

It whistled and it sang, 
And aye the ower-word o the tune 

" Was, Johnie tarries lang." 

THE ROBIN HOOD BALLADS 

Whether Robin Hood was actually an historical character 
will probably always be a matter of dispute. By some au- 
thorities he is believed to have been a great political leader, 
one of those yeomen who, under Edward II, joined the re- 
bellion of the Earl of Lancaster ; they all failed and were 
ruined, and Robin betook himself at once to Shervvood 
Forest, where he lived as an outlaw until his death at Kirk- 
lees Abbey. Others, including most of the modern critics, 
consider him a purely literary creation, representative, how- 
ever, of the general relations between the Anglo-Saxons and 
the intruding Normans in the twelfth and thirteenth centu- 
ries. One German scholar, Kuhn, would go still farther and 
call Robin a purely mythical being, possibly Woden him- 
self, making the connection by the ingenious chain of Hood- 



NOTES 173 

Wood- Woden. Professor Hales says, in his edition of 
Percy's Folio MS. : " We are not inclined to deny the ex- 
istence of Robin Hood. There is a certain local precision 
and constancy in the ballads. We can well believe that . . . 
some outlaw of the name did make himself famous in the 
North Country . . . till his name became a household word, 
and himself the universal darling of the common peoi3le." 
Professor Child says emphatically, " Robin Hood is abso- 
lutely a creation of the ballad muse. . . . The only two 
early historians who speak of him [Bower, c. 1441 ; Paston, 
c. 1473] as a ballad-hero, pretend to have no information 
about him except what they derive from ballads." The re- 
sults obtained by Clawson, the most recent investigator of 
the subject, confirm Child's conclusion. And all contempo- 
rary history is silent concerning him except as a ballad 
hero. The first allusion to Robin Hood is in Piers Plough- 
Tnan, c. 1377, where Sloth does not know his pater noster 
but says : " I can rymes of Robyn Hood." Probably these 
" rymes " were the original ballads from which the Gest 
was composed. The Gest was first printed in 1490 with the 
title, A Lytell Geste of Rohyn Hode, and is itself a history 
of the whole life of its hero, divided into eight Fyttes. Sub- 
sequent ballads, four of which may be of equal age with the 
material of the Gest, contribute new incidents to Robin's 
career but add little to the original drawing of his charac- 
ter. On this point all agree, — that Robin Hood was a robber 
on principles of justice only, that he relieved the barons and 
the bishops of their ill-gotten gains merely that he might 
distribute them among the poor ; that he was loyal to his 
king but hated the aristocracy, and loved the church but 
despised her rich prelates. Justice and fair-dealing was 
always his cry, and he was ever ready to undertake the 
cause of any man who was put upon. Open-handed, tender- 
hearted, generous, brave, full of fun and of witty expedi- 
ents when caught in a trap, — he had in the rough all the 
virtues of a true English gentleman. He is more a flesh- 
and-blood hero than King Arthur, and if popularity be any 



174 NOTES 

test, he may be considered his rival as the hero of English 
song. 

ROBIN HOOD AND GUY OF GISBORNE 

The text is that printed by Child (III, 91) from the 
Percy MS. This is a perfect specimen of the purely narra- 
tive ballad ; and what that implies may be felt by comparing 
it for a moment with a pure ballad of situation like Babylon, 
It is a long story, with epic characteristics from beginning to 
end : it has the formal introductory statement of time and 
place in stanza 1 ; it is throughout full of alliteration ; it 
abounds in proverbial sayings, as in stanzas 4, 11, 19, etc. : 
it comments upon the story, as in stanza 36 ; it consciously 
guides the reader, as in stanza 21. Furthermore, in true 
epic style, it centres attention upon the fight, and describes 
it with a wealth of detail that is wholly unusual. All this is 
a far cry from the simplicity of those ballads which stand 
closer to choral origins. The loss of several stanzas at the 
beginning make the start a little confusing ; and the confu- 
sion is still worse confounded by the shift to the past tense 
in the second stanza. In Hales and Furnivall's Bishop 
Percy's Folio MS. the second stanza is split to let in four 
lines, which help out the story, as follows : — 

The woodweete sang and would not cease 

Amongst the leaves o' lyne ; 
[So loud, he wakened Robin Hood, 

In the greenwood where he lay. 

'■ Now, by my foy," said jolly Robin, 
" A sweveu I had this night ;] 
And it is by two wight yeomen, 
By dear God that I mean." 

2. by : concerning. 

2. two wight yeomen : Child says (III, 89, 90) : " Sir Guy 
being one, the other person pointed at must of course be the 
sheriff of Nottingham (who seems beyond his beat in York- 
shire, but outlaws can raise no questions of jurisdiction), in 
league with Sir Guy (a Y'orkshireman, who has done many 



NOTES 175 

a curst turn) for the capture or slaying of Robin. The dream 
simply foreshadows danger from two quarters. But Robin 
Hood is nowhere informed, as we are, that the sheriff is out 
against him with seven score men, has attacked his camp, 
and taken John prisoner." 

11. Barnesdale: one of Robin's favorite haunts in 
Yorkshire. 

17. Good William a Trent : as inconsistent a phrase as 
" wee penknife " " three quarters long " in Johnie Cock. 

24. Wllfull of my way, etc. : I have lost all trace of my 
way and of the time of morning. 

27. unsett steven : time not previously fixed upon. 

28. prickes : the wand used for a mark in shooting. One 
recalls here Scott's account of the shooting of Lockesley in 
Ivanhoe. 

39, Ah, deere Lady: Robin's devotion to the Virgin is 
noticeable in all the ballads. So in the Gest we read : — 

Euery day or he wold dyne 

Thre messes wolde he here, 
The one in the worship of the Fader, 

And another of the Holy Gost, 
The thirde of Our dere Lady, 

That he loved allther moste. 

40. Akwarde : unexpected ; or possibly, back-handed. 
44. Put on that capidl-hyde : as disguise. 

48. To see how my men doe ffare : Robin cannot know 
that the sheriff is after him and his men. Child concludes 
that as " there is no cranny where it could have been thrust 
in, . . . it will not be enough to suppose that verses have 
been dropped out ; there must also have been a considerable 
derangement of the story." 

56. rowstye by the roote : rusty not so nmch with damp- 
ness as with the blood of the slain. 

ROBIN HOOD'S DEATH AND BURIAL 

The text is that printed by Child (III, 106) from The 
English Archer, Paisley, 1786. There are two versions ; 



176 NOTES 

the older one of the Percy MS., is imperfect ; it is known 
as Rohm Hoode his Death. The version here printed, 
although found only in late garlands, is, to quote Child, " in 
the fine old strain." Two chronicles of the sixteenth century, 
Grafton's and Holinshed's, record the main incidents of the 
ballad, — Robin's going to the nunnery (Bircklies, or Brick- 
lies) to be bled, and falling into the hands of his traitorous 
cousin ; and the latter adds that Little John, after his mas- 
ter's death, fled to Ireland. Practically the same account is 
given in the Gest : — 

Yet he was beg'yled, i-wys, 

Through a wycked woman, 
The pry^oresse of Kyrkesly, 

That iiye was of hys kynne. 



Cryst haue mercy on his soule, 

That dyed on the rode ! 
For he was a good outlawe, 

And dyde pore men moch god. 

3. fair Kirlcley : Kirklees nunnery, near Wakefield, in 
Yorkshire. 

4. At the ring : the hammer of the door-knocker. 

4. so ready as his cousin: in the older version the sug- 
gestion of betrayal comes sooner. Will Scarlett, to whom 
Robin there announces his intention of going to the nunnery, 
speaks as follows : — 

" That I reade not," said Will Scarllett, 
" Master, by the assente of me, 
Witliout a halfe hundred of your best bowmen 
You take to g"oe with yee. 

"For there a g'ood yeoman doth abide 
Will be sure to quarrell witli thee, 
And if thou have need of us, master, 
In faith we will not flee." 

Robin, however, incensed by Will's caution, which he calls 
cowardice, takes Little John, and proceeds. On the way 
they meet weeping women whose words seem to have all the 
foreshadowing of coming doom of the witches in Macbeth : — 



NOTES 177 

We weepen for his [Robin's] deare body, 
That this day must be lett bloode. 

But Robin fears nothing, trusting wholly to the faithfulness 
of kin. 

8. bleed all the live-long day : the older version has a 
graphic touch here. Cf. Hugh of Lincoln, stanza 8, and 
note thereon. 

The grave of Robin Hood, so called, is still pointed out to 
the curious. A cross is said to have once marked the spot, 
bearing an epitaph to the effect that Robert, Earl of 
Huntington, called " Robin Hood," died December 24, 1247, 
and was buried there. One version adds after the nineteenth 
stanza the following ''foolish " lines evidently made to in- 
troduce the epitaph (cf. Child, III, 107). 

Thus he that never feared bow nor spear 

Was murderd by letting blood ; 
And so, loving- friends, the story it ends 

Of valiant Robin Hood. 

There 's nothing- remains but his epitaph now, 

Which, reader, here you have, 
To this very day which read you may, 

As it is upon his g-rave. 
Hey down a derry derry down. 

For the epitaph, however, we must go to still another ver- 
sion (cf. Child, III, 107). 

Robert Earl of Hunting-ton 
Lies under this little stone. 
No archer was like him so g-ood, 
His wildness nam'd him Robin Hood. 
Full thirteen years and something more 
These no[r]thern parts he vexed sore : 
Such outlaws as he and his men 
May England never know again. 

ROBIN HOOD RESCUING THE WIDOW'S THREE SONS 

The text is that printed by Child (III, 180) from The 
English Archer, Robin Hood's Garland, York edition, 



178 NOTES 

without date. There are three versions of this ballad, 
and it is also known as Robin Hood Rescuing Three 
Squires. Out of the whole collection of thirty-six Robin 
Hood ballads, only five have come down to us in trust- 
worthy ancient form ; some twenty of the remainder belong- 
to garlands or broadsides of the seventeenth century. Some 
of these have in them much of the popular quality, and 
others are " charwork." But, although inferior, they were 
well enough beloved in rural England. Their inferiority 
to a certain extent may be readily felt here after reading 
Guy of Gisborne, — there is a shrinkage in Robin's heroic 
stature and he seems a little more of an actor upon a stage ; 
the ballad repetition is less effective and in parts tiresome ; 
there is a consciousness in the style throughout. Yet the 
ballad retains what Gummere calls some " genuine old ballad 
stuff in its dotage " ; and it is interesting as a study in tran- 
sition between the earliest Robin Hood ballads, of which 
Child says, " none in England please so many and please so 
long," and those that are wholly degenerate, '* sometimes 
wearisome, sometimes sickening" variations upon "the 
theme, ' Robin Hood met with his match.' " 

2. silly old woman: . . . three squires : in another ver- 
sion she claims them at once as her sons. 

6. Bearing their long bows with thee : sufficient reason 
to the loyal Robin to bestir himself. 

11. thine apparel is good, etc. : cf . with the change of 
apparel with the beggar in Hind Horn. The palmer naturally 
doubts Robin's sincerity, but the " twenty pieces of good 
broad gold " suffice to clinch the bargain. 

13. The first bold bargain : the spirit of frolic always 
enters Robin's heart the moment he is embarked upon a new 
enterprise. Stage accessories, like the hat, cloak, shoes, etc., 
always add to his glee, for he enjoys " dressing up " as any 
boy would, 

20. Some suits : in another version it is the clothes of 
the hanged men and their money that is offered to him. 

21. jumps from stock to stone : total disguise is always 
impossible for Robin. 



NOTES 179 

24. For thee it blows little good : the boastful tone rouses 
quick resentment. 

28. The 're my attendants : in another version we have 
the dramatic touch of Robin's standing forth, a good yeoman 
undisguised " in a doublet of red veluett " as soon as his men 
arrive. 

29. Theij hangd the proud sheriff : no choice of escape 
is offered him here, but in the London edition of the gar- 
land, we read : — 

" O take them, O take them," says g^reat master sheriff, 
" take them along- with thee ; 
For there 's never a man in all Nottingham 
Can do the like of thee." 



GLOSSARY 



a', all. 

a, I (as in a tvat, I know). 

aboone, aboon, above. 

ae, one, single. 

ae, aye, always. 

aff , off. 

ails ye at, troubles ye at. 

ain, own. 

aim, iron. 

alane, alone. 

amblit, ambled. 

-an, -ane, -and, -en, etc., annexed to 
the definite form of the superla- 
tive of the adjective (preceded by 
the, her, etc.), or to numerals, or 
following separately, seems to be 
an, one: the firstan, nextan, 
flrsten, nexten, that samen. The 
history of this usage has not been 
made out. 

ance, once. 

and, superfluoris, as in " when that 
I was and a little tiny boy." The 
same usage in German, Swedish, 
and especially Dutch ballads. 

auld, old. 

ava, of all, at all. 

awa, away. 

awet, know. Perhaps, await, de- 
scry. 

awkwarde stroke, a backhanded 
stroke. 

ay, aye, ever. 

B 

ba, ball. 

bairn, barn, bern, child. 

baith, both. 

bale, ill, trouble, mischief, harm, 

calamity, destruction. 
ballup, front or flap of breeches. 



band(e), bond, compact. 

barn-well, the well has no sense, 
and has probably been caught 
from " at the far well-washing." 

basnet, a light helmet, shaped like 
a skull-cap. 

bedone, worked, ornamented. 

belive, beliue, soon, immediately. 

bent, bents, a kind of coarse grass, 
here fields covered with that 
grass. 

bide, stay, endure. 

bigrly (Icelandic, byggiligr, habit- 
able), commodious, pleasant to 
live in, frequent epithet of bower, 
of a bier : handsomely wrought. 

billie, comrade, brother; "a term 
expressive of affection and famil- 
iarity." 

birk, birch. 

blaw, blow. 

blude. bluid, blood. 

bode-words, messages. 

bold, sharp, brisk. 

boote, help. 

boots, profits. 

bore, hole, crevice. 

borrow, v., set free, deliver, ransom. 

bot, but. bot and : see but and. 

boun, bowne, v., make ready, go. 

boun, bon, bowne, adj., bound, 
ready. See boun, v. 

bower, bowr, chamber. 

bracken, braken, breaken, fern, 
brake. 

brae, hillside, hill, river-bank. " Con- 
joined with a name, it denotes the 
upper part of a country, as the 
Braes of Angus." Jamieson. 

brae, brow. 

braid, breadth. Adj., broad. 

braid (broad) letter, either a letter 
on a broad sheet or a long letter. 

brake, fern. 



182 



GLOSSARY 



brand, sword, 

brast, burst, broke, broken. 

braw, fine, handsome, finely 
dressed. 

breaken. See bracken. 

bree, broth. See broo. 

brim, sea. The brim of a precipice 
may be meant. 

broken men, men under sentence 
of outlawry, or who lived as vaga- 
bonds and public depredators, or 
were separated from their clans 
in consequence of crimes. Jamie- 
son. 

broo, water in which something has 
been boiled. 

brotch, brooch. 

burn, brook. 

busk, buss, 1. make ready. 2. dress, 
deck. 3, betake oneself, go. 

buss, bush. 

but and, bot and, but an, and also. 

byre, cow-house. 



capull-hyde, horse-hide. 
care-bed, almost, or quite, sick-bed. 
carlin, carline, old woman ; or a 

wealthy woman, low-born woman, 

peasant woman. 
channerin, fretting, petulant, 
clame, jyret. of climb. 
cleadiner, n., clothing, 
cloathe, garment. 
closs, enclosure, yard, and, before 

a house, courtyard ; close. 
coffer, trunk or box, for clothes and 

valuables. 
corbie, raven. 

couth, sound, word. Jamieson. 
crawed, crawn, p. p. of craw, crow. 
cum, pret. of come. 
curch, curche, kerchief, woman's 

head covering. 



daw, v., dawn. 
dead, deed, v., death. 
deal, distribute. 



debate, quarrel. 

dee, do, be allowed, borne. 

dee, do. 

deir, dear. 

dig-ht, dressed, 

dinna, do not. 

do on, put on, don. 

doen, betaken, 

do to, do till, with reflexive pro- 
noun, betake. 

dois, does. 

dowie, dowy, sad, doleful, melan- 
choly, wretched. 

drap, drop. 

dre(e), dri, drie, drye, suffer, 
undergo, hold out, stand, be able. 
drie to feel, be compelled, come 
to feel. 

drumlie, -ly, perturbed, gloomy. 

dule, dool, grief. 

dyke, wall. Sometimes ditch. 

E 

eare, ere, ayre, heir. 

ee, eye. PL een. 

eir, e'er. 

ere, v., heir, 

erst, formerly, 

even cloth, smooth, with the nap 

well shorn. 
eyne, eyes. 



fa, fall. 

fadge: fat fadge, a lusty and 

clumsy woman, 
fadir, father. 
fadom, fathom, 
faem, foam, sea. 
fail, turf. 

fain(e), glad, pleased, eager. 
fairlie, farlie, ferlie, wonder. 
fallow doe, a female deer of a 

smaller species than the red deer. 
fame, foam, sea. 
fare, go on. 

fash, 71. and v., trouble. 
fause, false. 
fee, wages. 



GLOSSARY 



183 



fell, high land, fit only for pastures, 
a wild hill. 

fend, v., provide. 

ffarley, wondrous, strange. 

flee, fly. 

fley. flay, frighten. 2^ret., fleed, flied. 

flinters, flinders, fragments. 

forehammer, sledge-hammer, the 
large hammer, which strikes be- 
fore the smaller. 

fountain stane, baptismal font. 

frae, from. 

fu, full. 

fule, fowl. 



g-ae, go. pret, gaed, ged. pi'es. p., 
gain, gan, etc. 

eae, pret. of gie, give . 

gallows-pin. See pin. 

g-an, gon, with infinitive, began, did. 

grane, j^-l^- of gae, go. 

esmg, go, walk. 

grar, make do, cause. 

gare, grair, g-ore, properly, a trian- 
gular piece of cloth inserted in a 
garment to give width at that 
part; low down by his (her) gare, 
is a frequently recurring expres- 
sion wliich may be taken literally, 
down by that part of a garment 
where tlie gore would be, low by 
his knee. 

grarlande, rose-grarlonde, a circu- 
lar wreath, apparently hung on a 
wand or rod. 

erat, got. 

g'ear, goods, property, often cattle ; 
fighting equipments; (silken) gear, 
clothes, 

ged. See grae. 

greid, pret. of gie, give. 

gie, give, j^ret., gied. p. p., gien. 

grier. See grear. 

grif , if. 

grin, g-ine, conj., if. 

grin, given, 

Good, God. 

goud, growd, n. and adj., gold. 

grouden, growden, golden. 



gownd, gown. 

grraith, v., make ready, p. p., 
graithed, equipped in defensive 
armor, gowden-graithd before 
and siller-shod behind, properly, 
harnessed, but shod seems to be 
meant here, 

grat, 29re^ of greet, weep. 

greet, weep, cry. 

gryte, great. 

gude, guid, gueed(e), good. 



H 



ha, house, manor-house. 

hadno, had not. 

hae, have. 

halden, held. 

hame, home. 

haled, drew. 

hause-bane, neck-bone. 

hee, he. 

hent, caught, took. 

herry, harry, pillage, rob. 

holland, holland, linen. 

hooly, slowly, softly. 

hope, expect, think. 

houm, level low ground on a river- 
bank. 

hussyfskap, husseyskep, house- 
wifery (she was making puddings). 



ile, I will. 

ilka, ilkae, each, either. 

into, in. 

ir, are. 

I'se, I shall. 



jaw, wave, current, 
jimp, adj., slender, slim, 
jow (of bell), stroke. 

E 

kail, kale, colewort; broth made 
of greens, especially of coleworts. 
kaim, comb. 



184 



GLOSSARY 



keen(e), bold, 
kem, comb. 
ken, know. 
kirk, kirke, church. 
knaue, servuiit. 
kye, cows. 



laigh, low, mean. 

laird, ;i laiulhokler, under the de- 
gree of knight; the proprietor of 
a house or of more houses tliun 
one. 

laith, loath. 

lake, pit, cavity. 

lamer, amber. 

laner, long 

lap, wraj), roll. 

lap, j)ret. of leap. 

late, pret. of let, allow. 

lauch, n., laugh. 

lauch, ('., laugh. 

lav(e)rock, lark. 

lawin(g), tavern-reckoning. 

lear, instruction, learning, informa- 
tion. 

lee, untilled ground, grass land, 
open plain, ground. 

leive, leave. 

leman, beloved. 

len, /'., lean. 

leven, lawn, glade, open ground in 
a forest. 

lightly(e), quickly. 

ligrhtly, treat with disrespect. 

lillie, (lea, lee, lie, leven) explained 
as " overs])read with lilies or 
flowers," but clearly from A. S. 
leotlic, M. Eng. lelly, etc., lovely, 
charming. 

limmer, a term of opprobrium, or 
simply of dislike; wretch (m. or 
./■), rascal. 

liner, lie;ithor. 

linn, lin, lynn(e), water-fall, tor- 
rent, pool in a river, especially, 
below a water-fall. 

lodfringr-maill, rent for lodging. 

loot, pnf. and p. p. of let, allowed, 
allowed to come. 



loun, lown, lowne, loon, a person 

of low rank , rogue ; often a mere 
term of general disparagement 
(as in l<:nglish loun). 

low, lowe, hill. 

low, llame. 

luiket, looked. 

lyne. See linn. 



mak, make. 

mair, more, bigger. 

make, mate, consort. 

mane, moan, complaint, lament ; 

often nothing more than utter- 

anee, enunciation. 
marchandise, dealing. 
march-man, one who lives on the 

march, or border. " 
marrow (of man or woman), mate, 

husband, wife ; match, equal lu 

rank, equal antagonist. 
mary, marie, marrie, marry, 

a queen's lady, muid-of-honor, 

maid (like abigail). 
masteryes, make, do feats of skill. 
maun, nmst. 
may, maid. 
meal, l)ag. 

meikle, nuich, great, 
micht, /'., might. 
meet, straight, even, 
middle, waist. 
mind o, on, remember, 
mony, monny. many, 
mot, mote, may. 
muckle. meikle, big, much, 
muir, moor. 



N 



na, nae, no, not. Frequently united 
with the preceding verb: hadna. 
nane, none. 
naethingr, nothing. 
neir, never. 
neist, neisten, next, 
nextin, next. 
nie, nigh. 
nourice, nurse. 



GLOSSARY 



185 



0, of. 

oer, above. 

of, concerning. 

on, of, above, to. 

ony, any. 

or, before. 

ousen, oxen. 

out of hand, owt o 

with. 
ower, owre, over, too. 
owre, or, before. 



hand, fortb- 



paction, compact. 

pain, penalty. 

pall, fine cloth. 

pallions, pavilions. 

pellettes, bullets. 

pestilett, pistolet. 

pike, pick. 

pin, grallows-pin, the projecting or 
horizontal beam of the gallows 
(?). Any projection upon which 
a rope could be fastened. 

pine, suffering, pain. 

pitt, put. 

pitten, p. p. of pit, put. 

plat, pret. of plet: plaited, inter- 
folded. 

prick (e), pry(c)ke, preke, rod or 
wand, used as a mark in shoot- 
ing, prick.wand; a mark gener- 
ally. 

pu, pull. 



querry, quyrry, quarry, dead 

game. 
quite, free, clear, unpunished. 

R 

rade, rode. 

rank, wild, bold, strong, violent; 
rude, boisterous ; of spirit and 
courage, sturdy, rank robber, 
one who robs with violence, 
"strong thief." 



rawstye by the roote,- rusty, 
soiled, foul, (with blood) at the 
end (?). 

rede, v., advise. 

reed, red. 

reft, bereft. 

reiver, robber. 

rin, run. 

rive, tear. 

round tables, a game. 

row, rowe, roll, jjret and p. p., 
rowed, rowd, rolled, wound. 

row-footed, rough-footed. 

rue, cause to rue. 

rung", staff, pike-staff. 



S 



sae, so. 

sair, sore. 

sail, shall. 

sark, shirt, shift. 

saut, salt. 

scad, scald. 

schoone, see shoon. 

scroffgrs, stunted bushes, or per- 
haps trees ; underwood. 

sel, self. 

shaftmont, shathmont, the mea- 
sure from the top of the extended 
tlumib to the extremity of the 
palm, six inches. 

shanno, shall not. 

shaw, shawe, wood, thicket. See 
wode shawe. In Teviotdale, 
shawe is " a piece of ground which 
becomes suddenly flat at the bot- 
tom of a hill or steep bank." 
Jamieson. 

sheave, n., slice. 

sheen, sheene, sheyne, shining, 
bright, beautiful. 

sheene, >*., brightness, splendor. 

sheugrh, trench, ditch, furrow. 

shoon(e), shoes. 

shot-window : the shot-window of 
recent times is one turning on a 
hinge, above, and extensible at 
various angles by means of a per- 
forated bar fitting into a peg or 
tooth. Donaldson, Jamieson's 



186 



GLOSSARY 



Dictionary, 1882, notes that in the 
west of Scotland a bow-window is 
called an out-shot window. A bow- 
window would be more convenient 
in some of the instances. 

shradds, coppices. 

sic, such, such a. 

sick, sicke, such. 

sin, since (temporal and causal), 
then. 

sith, since. 

skinkled, sparkled. 

slack, a gap or narrow pass between 
two hills ; low ground, a morass. 

slight, demolish. 

slogan, war-cry, gathering word of 
a clan. 

sloken, quench. 

smock, shirt, chemise. 

smoldereth, smothereth. 

southin, southern. 

spait, flood. 

spauld, shoulder. 

speer, inquire. 

spiek, speak. 

splent (splint), armor of overlap- 
ping plates. 

stane, stone. 

stark, strong, stark and stoor, in a 
moral sense, wanting in delicacy, 
rude, violent, or indecent. 

stean: Marie's stean, a stone seat 
at the door of St. Mary's Church. 

stear, steer, stir, commotion. 

steid, steed. 

steuen, voice, vnsett Steven, time 
not previously fixed. 

stickit, stabbed. 

strack, struck. 

strake, stroke. 

strand, stream. 

streen,the streen, yestreen, yester 
night. 

stubborn, truculent, fierce. 

sum, some. 

swap, swak (swords, with swords), 
smite. 

swat, jrret. of swe(a)t, swett(e). 

sweven, sweauen, dream. 

syke, ditch, trench. 

syne, then, afterwards, since, ago. 



taen, p. p., taken. 

taffetie, fine silk. 

tane, the tane, the tither, tother, 
the one, the other. 

tate, tet, tette, lock (of hair, of 
mane). 

tett. See tate. 

that, so that. 

the, they. 

theek, j^ret- and p. p., theekit, 
theekd ; thatched, roofed. 

thegfither, together. 

thimber, heavy, massive. 

thrae, through. ' 

threw, pret. of thraw, twisted, in- 
tertwined. 

tift, puflE, whiff. 

till, to. 

to, for. 

toom, empty. 

to-towe, a strong too. 

tree, straight piece of rough wood ; 
crooked tree, bow. 

trew, trow, believe, suppose. 

tul, till. 

twa, two. 

twain, ('., part. See twin. 

twin, twine, twyne, deprive ; part 
with ; separate ; part, intrans. 



under nigrht, in the night. 
until, into, to. 

W 

wa, wall. 

wad, would. 

wae, wo. 

wae, adj., unhappy. 

wame, womb. 

wan, dark-colored, pallid, colorless, 
white. 

wan, pret. of win. 

war, waur, were. 

waran, warrant, sponsor for, se- 
curity ; safeguard. 

wardle, world, wardle's make, see 
warld. 



GLOSSARY 



187 



warld, world, warld's make. 

word-lye make, world's, earthly, 
mate, consort. 

warlock, wizard. 

warst, worst. 

"wat, wate, wait, watt, weet, wet, 
wit, wite, wyte, wis, wot, know. 
I wat, wate, a wat, a wite, etc., 
frequently nothing more than as- 
suredly, indeed. pret.,wist. p.p., 
wist, west. 

wat a, a wat, I wat. 

water, water-side, " the banks of 
a river, in the mountainous dis- 
tricts of Scotland the only inhab- 
itable parts." Scott. 

weel, well. 

ween, lament. 

weet, weit, wet. 

well-wigrht, very strong, sturdy, 
stalwart ; but, sometimes, brave. 

wex, wax, grow. 

wether (perhaps, whether), 
whither. 

wha, who. 

whaten a, whatten, what sort? 
what (in particular) ? 

white money, monie, silver. 

wi, with. 

wigrht, strong; but also, denoting 
bodily activity, brisk, sturdy. 

wile, vile. 



wilfuU, 280, 24 : wilfull Of my way, 
astray, lost ; aticl of my morning 
tyde may be that he does not know 
the hour, or, he has lost his time 
as well as his road. 

win, make your way, arrive ; get, go. 
2jret., wan. p. p., won, wan, win. 

winna, winne, will not. 

wiss, n., wish. 

won, dwell. 

won, win, get, go, come, arrive; 
gain, earn. 

wood wroth, furiously angry. 

woodweele, wodewale, 279,2 (MS. 
woodweete), woodwale, wood- 
lark (?). Generally explained as 
woodpecker; sometimes as thrush, 
red-breast. 

wow, exclamation of distress, admi- 
ration, or sorrowful surprise. 

wrocken, wroken. p. p., avenged. 

wul, wull, will. 

wyle, choose ; also entice. 

wylie, wily. 



yae, every, 
ye'se, ye shall. 

yestreen, yesterday even, yester- 
night. 
yon, yonder. 



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